On Sunday, dozens of volunteers came out in Hernando County to help with the county's first oyster reef restoration project.
- Volunteers help fill bags for oyster reef
- Part of Hernando County's restoration project
- Bags scheduled to be put in Centipede Bay in mid-April
The volunteers were tasked with scooping hundreds of pounds of recycled oyster shells into mesh bags.
A total of 2,500 bags will be used to create an oyster reef in Centipede Bay off the coast of Hernando Beach.
"I think this is about paying back to the community and help with the betterment and restoration of the environment,” volunteer Mike Fulford said.
It's all thanks to the county's partnership with the Florida Sea Grant program through the University of Florida.
"We've found that there are plenty of oyster larvae in the water so we're hoping just putting that substrate out there the hard substrate will allow the oysters to colonize and grow on it and in a year or so we'll have a nice oyster bar where one didn't exist before," said Dr. Josh Patterson, assistant professor in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the University of Florida.
Hernando County Aquatic Services Manager Keith Kolasa said this is the first oyster reef restoration project on the nature coast, but there have been several other successful reefs in other parts of the state.
"One of the big benefits that we've seen is that shoreline protection. So you'll see it kind of breaks the waves it calms the water down you'll see sea grass start to move into the area there as well,” Dr. Patterson said.
“And there actually haven't been a lot of specific studies looking at the fish communities of restored oyster reefs but we know that natural oyster reefs are very important for habitat for young fish and also attracting larger fish as well," he said.
Kolasa said this project is just the beginning.
"This is more of a pilot project so if this one works well we have money that we're allocated through the restore program and we hope to do a lot more of these sort of projects," Kolasa said.
Right now, the bags are scheduled to be put in Centipede Bay in mid-April.
You can sign up for future volunteer opportunities for the project here.