Oyster Conservationist Program
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Oysters have declined dramatically in the estuary since the 1800's, with high losses in recent years. Most of the decline is due to disease, pollution, and over-harvest. Biologists estimate that the largest beds in Great Bay held about 120 harvestable oysters per square meter in 1993. Today, those same beds have about seven harvestable oysters per square meter. Until the big decline, oysters served as the estuary's kidneys and liver by filtering tremendous amounts of water each day. Great Bay needs strong oyster populations for pollution resilience.
WHO ARE OYSTER CONSERVATIONISTS?
Oyster conservationists are volunteers with access to a suitable dock who raise oysters that will ultimately be used to restore historic reefs in the Great Bay system. Volunteers are trained to care for young oysters (spat) and raise them to the size needed for placement at restoration sites in the estuary. The volunteers are provided with approximately 500 spat, the necessary supplies to raise them, and detailed information on oysters (life history, ecology) and how to care for them. After initial training (about 2 hours), time commitment is less than one hour per week during the summer/fall growing season. We are especially interested in volunteers who have docks that would be suitable for deploying trays of young oysters, but there are ways to help with the project in another capacity if you don’t have a suitable oyster-rearing location. The program is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy (TNC), The University of New Hampshire (UNH) and New Hampshire Sea Grant and is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Community Based Restoration Program, TNC, UNH, and private donors. To see the results from the 2006 season and read this final report, click here.
Click here to download the 2008 Excel version of the datasheet.
