Oyster Reef Stimulus Project Begins

Quarry workers, truckers, welders, barge operators, tug boat captains and heavy machine operators--these aren’t the kinds of jobs that usually come to mind when thinking about environmental projects. But they make up the backbone of an oyster-habitat restoration project that began this week in coastal North Carolina.

The N.C. Coastal Federation is partnering with local contractors, scientists from N.C. State University and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, North Carolina Sea Grant and the state Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) to build and monitor approximately 47 acres of oyster reefs in Pamlico Sound.

“We’ve been busy preparing the barges and equipment for this project ever since we got the green light,” says Simon Rich, co-owner of Edenton- and Charleston, S.C.-based Steven’s Towing Co., the barge company responsible for ferrying limestone marl to the sanctuary sites. “We’ve been able to re-hire several of our guys, so we’re really happy about that. The first of the rock hit the water on Monday, and we’ll be working full steam ahead from now on, weather permitting.”

A $5 million federal economic stimulus grant is paying for the work. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) gave the grant to the federation. The agency’s stimulus money is being used to restore coastal habitats across the county. NOAA considered more than 800 projects for funding. The federation’s proposal was one of 50 selected, and the only one in North Carolina.

“The partners are excited for the chance to move North Carolina oyster restoration efforts forward, along with all the economic and environmental benefits that they bring,” explained Todd Miller, the federation’s executive director.

“This project reminds us that our economy and environment are intertwined,” said NOAA’s acting assistant administrator for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, Jim Balsiger. “The Recovery Act is making it possible to hire local people to help restore an important part of North Carolina’s coastline that will strengthen the community’s environment and economy for the long term.”

During the two-year project, a small mountain of limestone marl, 54,500 tons, will be moved from a quarry in New Bern to a loading site in Belhaven and then barged offshore to build the oyster sanctuaries. In another component of the project, the grant will pay commercial fishermen to place 40,000 bushels of oyster shells in the water to give juvenile oysters, called ‘spat,’ more places to settle. The shell plantings, which are scheduled to begin in the spring, will take place at multiple sites up and down the coast and will create two acres of reef.

The sanctuary reefs will be mounds built in designated areas at Crab Hole, off of Stumpy Point in Dare County, and Clam Shoal, off of Hatteras Island, also in Dare. DMF has several test mounds already built at both locations. The reef mounds will be at least seven feet below the surface, but well off the bottom. This design allows the mounds to be high enough in the water that currents and circulation will encourage oyster spat settlement. The young oysters that attach to the rocks also will have plenty of light and food. Oyster fishing will be prohibited on the sanctuaries, but hook and line fishing will be permitted.

Similar mounds built at Ocracoke in 2005 have been very successful, noted Stopher Slade, DMF’s oyster sanctuary biologist. “We’ve had such good oyster recruitment that you can’t tell anymore where the individual pieces of marl are,” he says. “When biologists want to estimate how many oysters have settled on the reef, we’ve got to use a crow bar to dislodge a piece of marl. We’re hopeful that this project will prove to be just as successful.”

To help determine the project’s success, scientists from N. C. State University, the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and North Carolina Sea Grant have designed a monitoring plan. They’ve already been in the water to assess pre-building conditions and will continue to monitor the sanctuary and cultch-planting sites as the project continues.

This work is part of an overall strategic plan to restore oyster habitat in coastal North Carolina. Historic maps, drawn by Francis Winslow from the 1880s, indicate that the Pamlico Sound was filled with oyster reefs. By some accounts more than 20,000 acres of oyster covered the bottom of the sound. The sanctuary locations were selected based on this historic data, reports and input from commercial fishermen and computer models that predict restoration success.

Though the project partners will deliver the materials and create the oyster sanctuaries, once the mounds are built, nature will continue the work, allowing the currents and oysters to carry on. Oysters on the reefs will multiply, cleaning the water and providing homes for the fish and other marine creatures. The reefs will continue to provide area residents’ with livelihoods that depend on the fishing, recreation and tourism.