From table to reef: installing a vertical oyster garden

Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center team members Brittany Metzler and Mark Williams prepare vertical oyster gardens. JIM AUSTIN / FLORIDA WEEKLY

With a sullen gray sky overhead and the prior night’s rain puddles pooled on the ground, a team of oyster farmers walked down the Laishley Marina dock with their “babies.” It was 9:30 a.m. Earth Day, April 22.

The team was from the nonprofit Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center (CHEC). Cleaned and stored at the city water treatment facility near Washington Loop, their babies were oyster shells with holes that were looped onto a cord.

Mostly light gray in color, with a few pink ones, the shells were strung in vertical strands. All together, the team sowed 40 strands into a vertical oyster garden off the Laishley Marina dock.

On the dock, Gayle Plaia explained that oysters reproduce by broadcast propagation, with eggs and sperm bonding as they free float in the water. The fertilized egg develops into a trochophore. This stage changes to a D-shaped larval shell.

Next is the veliger larval stage, which uses its cilia to swim and dine on phytoplankton. The larvae look for a piling, rock or hard surface, but prefer to settle on their own species.

CHEC oyster farmers Ashley Cook, above, and Gayla Plaia, left.

A newly attached oyster is called a spat. Mark Williams explained that these grow, held in place by what he calls “estuary superglue.”

The CHEC team chose the day specifically. This year’s Earth Day theme was “Planet vs. Plastics.” Williams, in explaining the purpose of a vertical oyster garden, emphasized oysters do not attach to plastic. He added that juvenile hatchling oysters take a number of years to become full grown “oysties.”

Although the Charlotte Harbor oysters have declined by 90%, Williams was hopeful about the positive effect of the team’s vertical oyster gardening. The reason? A full-grown oyster can filter 50 gallons of water each day and will filter out phytoplankton in the process.

In short: The more oysters there are in Charlotte Harbor, the better our harbor’s water quality becomes.

Oyster reefs also break up waves due to their structure and location. Not to mention, oyster conglomerations create habitats for other key species.

Learn more about vertical oyster gardening at www.checflorida.org/vertical-oyster gardening.

Thanks to the oyster farmers, as the sun emerged over Charlotte Harbor, there was hope on this Earth Day morning for both clearer skies and cleaner waters. ¦

The post From table to reef: installing a vertical oyster garden first appeared on Charlotte County Florida Weekly .