Restoring New York harbor with a billion oysters

TRANSCRIPT:

(Theme music plays)

Timmy Broderick: Hi there, welcome back to the Scienceline podcast. I’m Timmy Broderick, your host and the Multimedia Editor here at Scienceline.org. Make sure to subscribe to our show, whether you’re listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or whatever platform you use.

Ok, so today we’re talking about oysters. I’ve got a story for you about these bivalves’ past, present and — maybe — future in New York Harbor. Let’s do this.

(Fade in water lapping, people chattering)

All right, here’s the scene: It’s a gorgeous fall day in New York City. The harbor is sparkling, the Jet Skis are loud, and you’ve got a couple dozen people standing around some gunky oyster cages on a rocky Brooklyn pier.

Timmy Broderick: Have you guys ever done this before?

Event participant: I did it over the summer. The cages, like you can almost not see through them [because] there’s so much other life going on. They’re also like these huge clumps, I think at most we had, like, three stuck together over the summer. This is, like, seven at least, without even officially counting.

These folks are citizen scientists who volunteered for the day. They’re armed with clipboards and calipers. And they’re taking measurements of the oysters and other marine life in these cages. 

Emily Liang: Oh my gosh, another one? You guys are like the fish wranglers of the day.

Jasper Fox: We’re trying to get another one of those into that thing. Because I know for a fact that fish get really lonely. They do. I have two fish.

This is Timmy Broderick reporting from Scienceline. You just heard from Jasper Fox and Emily Liang. They were talking about the other animal life living in the oyster cages. Jasper is a very precocious 10-year-old. We’ll come back to him later. Emily is the field station coordinator for the Billion Oyster Project. What’s going on here is one of their monthly oyster health monitoring checks.

Emily: So today, we are going to be monitoring our oysters, we’re going to do some data collection, we are going to count the oysters, and we’re also going to measure the oysters. So, Hector… 

Hector Prud’homme: So I’ve got some data sheets to pass around….

The Billion Oyster Project wants to replenish New York Harbor with, you guessed it, a billion oysters by 2035. Why? Oysters are conservation superheroes. They naturally filter water, provide shoreline protection from crazy storms and also promote biodiversity. Oysters are not a panacea, by any measure, but they are a salve for the turmoil caused by climate change—and a way to restore the ecological health of the harbor. 

Emily is very eager to tackle this problem. She grew up 20 minutes from the beach in southern California. So, she knows her fish and shellfish. It’s pretty obvious looking at her, too.

Timmy: Can you tell me about your bandana that you’re wearing?

Emily: Oh, yeah, I am wearing a bandana that has a bunch of different fish on it. But they are Pacific fish. I wish they were Atlantic fish, because then we could identify [them] but they’re from the West Coast.

The project first started seeding the harbor back in 2010.  Emily says they’ve got 14 oyster reefs scattered around the region and are on track to meet their 2035 goal. The group added over 11 million oysters to the area last year. And the oysters we’re looking at here are mostly healthy and thriving. 

Emily: So these ones are actually doing really well. They’re only around two years old, and they are huge for being two years old. 

Each cage is also full of gunk-y life. You’ve got red gunk, orange gunk, green gunk.

Emily: We have things like sea lettuce, so we have red sea lettuce, and also the typical just green sea lettuce here. And there’s just so many fish here at this site as well. There’s just like, really, really good wildlife.

Oysters naturally filter water. Fifty gallons a day, which is close to a bathtub’s worth. They suck up water to get plankton and other goodies, and whatever pollutants come along with them get pooped out and left to settle along the seabed. A billion oysters would be able to process all of the harbor’s waters every few days. 

(Laughter)

Oyster reefs can also calm storm waters. Ten years ago, Superstorm Sandy pummeled the region. If another massive hurricane hits in the future, reefs could break up the storm’s powerful waves. They wouldn’t be a spike strip for big waves or anything — a powerful wave is still going to barrel on through — but they can slow them down. Because of all this, Emily says oysters are an “integrated solution to climate change.”

Emily: In terms of how climate change affects oysters, their shells don’t do well with ocean acidification, which will increase in climate change. But on the other hand, oysters, part of the reason that we are restoring them is that they can be a climate solution for us on land.

(Fade in music)

So, oysters can help fight climate change. They’re also a huge part of New York’s culture. Pollution and overfishing over the last century decimated the region’s oyster stock, but it used to be the oyster capital of the world. That’s why the Billion Oyster Project exists. For folks who grew up in and around the New York Harbor, watching the oyster population decline has been tough.

(Fade out music)

Mitch: My name is Mitch Kramer, pretty much lifelong resident in Oyster Bay. I own several of the towboat U.S. companies in New York and Connecticut, where we do assistance towing and salvage on the water to boaters.

Timmy: Did you grow up playing in the water, then?

Mitch: I’ve grown up on the water, in the water, on the water, had a boat probably before I could walk. 

Timmy: Sorry, you had a boat before you could walk?

Mitch: As far as I can remember, I’ve always had a boat and been on the water. Probably not before I could walk, but close.

If you don’t know where Oyster Bay is, Mitch’s accent probably gives it away. Long Island, and specifically the Long Island Sound along its northern coast, is an oyster goldmine—or was, at least. 

Mitch: You know, shellfishing has been on the decline all throughout this area for quite some time now, you know, in Oyster Bay, which was always known for the oysters and the shellfish and the clams, we have seen a huge decrease in the numbers in the harbor, which is alarming.

The area’s decline in oysters didn’t happen overnight. Oyster Bay residents saw the overfishing and pollution — and contributed to it. But it wasn’t until the local hatchery lost its lease that alarm bells started to ring. Nobody was reseeding the bay with oysters anymore. 

Mitch: So, I think when they shut down the hatchery, and now we had a situation where there was literally nothing being put back into the harbor. Yet there was still a lot of pressure on the commercial side of people taking, and those numbers were going down, down, down and now it’s just probably about as bad as it could be.

Though Mitch has witnessed the oysters’ decline firsthand, he feels good about their future. He also helps lead a nonprofit working to improve the conditions for these oysters.

Mitch: If it’s done right, those oysters do reproduce. We could pretty much start from scratch in this harbor and hopefully learn from the last 100, 150 years of things that have been happening and move forward in a positive way.

(Fade in tape of Jasper and Laura)

All right, we are back at the harbor watching Jasper and his mom methodically measure oysters.

Timmy: Is this your first time monitoring? 

Laura Tresiokas (Jasper’s mom): We’ve done it once before, he was a little younger—

Jasper: I was probably, like, five.

Laura: No, not that long ago, but anyway, yeah… 

Timmy: Are you excited about it? 

Jasper: It’s fun.

Timmy: Do you like marine life?

Jasper: It’s interesting learning about it. Also kind of sad knowing though that, like, a lot of the marine life, like, if you were to go back 50 years, like, marine life would be so much different.

Timmy: What’s the biggest difference that you see now versus last time?

Jasper: Probably understanding what I’m observing more. Last time I was like, “Oh! Shape in water!” Now I more recognize that it’s an oyster, there’s barnacles, seaweed, algae and lots more stuff on it.

Timmy: So how aware are you of the larger mission that Emily was talking about? Is that something that resonates with you in terms of trying to make the harbor a place for oysters again?

Jasper: I definitely understand, like, that the river right now is pretty heavily polluted. And with all these guys filtering the water, it’s, like, spectacular if it can happen.  

(Fade in music)

Jasper: But I don’t think I know honestly that much on the topic and I wish I could learn more.

Timmy: Do you think you’re going to?

Jasper: Yeah, after today, definitely.

Thanks again to all the people who talked to me at that event back in October. Music in this episode from Blue Dot Sessions. From Scienceline, this is Timmy Broderick. Take care, y’all.

(Music fades out)

(Outro music fades in)

And that’s the show; thanks for listening! Feel free to share this with family or friends or whomever you think might be interested. The Scienceline podcast is available on every major platform. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen. Oh, and maybe throw us a rating or review. It helps other people to find our show. 

Scienceline is a production of NYU’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. Our theme music is by Jahzzar at the Free Music Archive. And for more information, please visit us at Scienceline.org or send us an email at scienceline@gmail.com. See you next time!

(fade out music)