Littoral Society Puts Out Mat for Oysters in the Two Rivers

Join Us to Build a Whelk-com Mat
on Saturday, June 30
at the Oyster Point Hotel, Red Bank, NJ

This summer the American Littoral Society is putting out the mat for oysters in the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers, and you can help.
 
"Oysters are the ultimate ecosystem engineers, helping restore water quality, provide habitat for fish and shoreline protection from storms" said Tim Dillingham, Executive Director "The American Littoral Society is working to 're-oyster our rivers', returning a vital but missing piece of coastal ecosystems to our shores. The Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers are special focus areas in this effort."
 
For the Operation Oyster kick-off event, on Saturday, June 30, the Littoral Society is inviting everyone to join us in the parking lot of the Oyster Point Hotel to make whelk-come mats for oysters. The mats will be used to help continue the search for natural oysters in the rivers and check growth rates on oyster larvae transfered from a spat tank. 

The mat-making event will run from 1-3 p.m. in the lower parking lot at the hotel, which is located at 146 Bodman Pl, Red Bank, NJ. The event is free and open to everyone. All mat-making materials will be provided, so just bring yourself. Wear clothing you don't mind getting a little messy.
 
Making whelk-come mats will involve attaching whelk shells to pieces of disassembled crab traps.
 
"The abandoned traps -- also known as ghost pots -- were collected from New Jersey waterways, where they can be a hazard for animals that inadvertently get stuck inside them," said Captain Alek Modjeski, Habitat Restoration Program Director for the Society.
 
Ghost pot collection is funded through a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration grant administered by the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, working in partnership with the Society.
 
"The completed mats will be put in the water off docks owned by program participants along the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers," said Julie Schumaker, Habitat Restoration Coordinator for the Littoral Society. "Society staff and volunteer Oyster Wranglers will then monitor them to see if any oyster babies attach."
 
Meanwhile, the Society will be raising oyster larvae in a spat tank at the Oyster Point Hotel. Once the larvae attach to shells in the tank, they will be transferred to new whelk-come mats that will also be placed in the rivers. The seeded mats will help determine viability and growth rates. 
 
The oyster nursery and mats are part of Operation Oyster, a Littoral Society project aimed at putting oysters back into New Jersey's bays and tidal estuaries. Over-harvesting and decades of pollution, accelerated by rampant development, have decimated New Jersey's natural oyster population. Oysters help keep water clean and oyster reefs help protect the coastline. They are nature's water filters, each one is able to clean up to 50 gallons of water a day. Oyster reefs also serve as speed bumps for waves during storms.
 
As part of Operation Oyster, the Society also has a spat tank in Ocean Gate, NJ, which is used to raise oyster babies for a reef project off Good Luck Point in Barnegat Bay. The Society has also engineered several oyster reefs at restored beaches on New Jersey's Delaware Bay. Those reefs help reduce erosion from beaches that horseshoe crabs use for breeding and shorebirds use for feeding.
 
The "Shuck It, Don't Chuck It!" shell recycling program is another component of Operation Oyster. A dozen restaurants in Ocean and Monmouth counties participate. 
 
The "Shuck It, Don't Chuck It!" program is generously supported by The Lusty Lobster and a grant from the Marta Heflin Foundation. It was created as a way to reduce waste going to landfills and as a method to obtain material for building oyster reefs.

Operation Oyster: Two Rivers is also supported by Metrovation, a property ownership and management company that operates The Grove at Shrewsbury and Brook 35 Plaza.
 
"We are grateful for the support of the Oyster Point Hotel, and all our other partners in this effort," Dillingham said. "This is truly a community effort to re-oyster these rivers."

Other Operation Oyster events will be occurring in New Jersey during the summer and fall, including a Parade of Boats on Thursday, July 26, to take oyster babies from the Ocean Gate spat tank to the reef off Good Luck Point, and educational programs in area schools.
 
For more information on Operation Oyster, please contact Capt. Al Modjeski at 732-291-0055 or alek@littoralsociety.org

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