TAMPA, Fla. — This may look like an art project, but it’s actually key to keeping the Tampa Bay Estuary alive.
- Oysters helps estuary in a unique way
- Volunteers will assist in collecting oysters
- Vertical oyster gardens will be placed into the water next week
“During spawning season, juvenile oysters will actually float by on the tide, attach to these shells, grow up to be a 70-80 mm oyster, and then they’ll start filtering the water,” Eric Plage, an environmental specialist with Tampa Bay Watch said.
Oysters filter one to five gallons of water every hour, making them essential, Plage says, to the Tampa Bay Estuary.
“They’re taking a lot of things like pollution, storm drain runoff, and the algae that causes the red tide, out of the system,” said Plage.
Which is why Tampa Bay Watch, along with dozens of volunteers, are building these things vertical oyster gardens, made of donated oyster shells from restaurants around St. Petersburg.
After the shells are strung onto rope, the gardens will be hung on the Gulfport Marina, offering a place for new oysters to attach and grow.
“We’ll pull them up in three to six months. Some of us will be adopting them and reporting back, taking pictures, documenting the growth, and what’s on them like the squirters and the new oysters. It’s going to be really fun to watch them grow as time goes on,” Paul Ray, vice mayor of Gulfport said.
Watch them grow, and watch what they do for the environment.
“They’re going to do a water sampling test, you know, for quality, before they go in. And then we can actually do another six months later after they’ve been there. And a year later. So we really can see what they’ve actually physically done,” Ray said.
The vertical oyster gardens will be put in the water as soon as next week, and Tampa Bay Watch hopes to host more events like this in the near future.