The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School

Oyster Restoration and Research Project

The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School

Advanced Aquaculture ClassFall 2010

Harbor School Loves Oysters

Harbor School’s Oyster History

• Harbor School and Baykeeper have been working together to restore oysters to the Harbor since the school’s inception

• 2003 Harbor School Students clean and monitor oyster gardens at The South Street Seaport Museum.

• 2005: Harbor Corps begins patrolling the city to work on about 30 different oyster gardens

• 2008 Bart Chezar of the Bay Ridge Flats Oyster Project starts working with the Harbor School Dive team on his groundbreaking reef on the Bay Ridge Flats

• 2008: First generation Floating Upweller System built, 100,000 oysters on Governors Island

• 2009: The new Eco-dock was in place on Governors Island holding 500,000 oysters

• 2010: Harbor School joins the Oyster Restoration and Research Partnership

Harbor School Oyster Work

Why Oysters?

• Filtration of water and concentration of biodeposits.

• Oysters provide habitat for fish (as well as other vertebrates and invertebrates) in the benthic zone.

• Stabilizes the benthic and/or intertidal habitat

• Increases landscape diversity

Oysters and our CTE Department

• Oysters, and oyster projects are excellent platforms for our Career Training classes

• We hope to have all of our CTE classes working together on this project

• To date Aquaculture, Advanced Vessel Operations and the Student Scientific Divers have collaborated in building and monitoring our reefs

• In the future we hope to include Marine Engineering’s remote operated vehicles and Marine Policy’s young writers

Oyster Restoration Research Project

• Project Overview

• Remote Setting

• Nursery/Growout

• Reef Construction

• Monitoring

Partners!

Oyster Restoration Research Project Partners include, the Hudson River Foundation, NY/NJ Baykeeper, US Army Corps of Engineers, The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, The New York Harbor Foundation, The US Environmental Protection Agency, The Trust for Governors Island, NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Program, NY City Department of Parks and Recreation, NY City Department of Environmental Protection, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation – Hudson River Program, Hudson River Park Trust, NOAA Restoration Center, Bart Chezar (Bay Ridge Flats Oyster Project), Rocking the Boat.

Reef Sites

Dive Sites:Governors Island, Bay Ridge Flats and Staten Island (not shown)Wading Sites:Hastings and Soundview Park

Eco-dock, pier 101

Remote Setting and Clam Shell Storage, Lima Pier

Remote Setting Facility on Lima Pier

Filter Pump Head Tank Setting Tanks Pier

2mm Spat On Shell

800 Watt heating element

Mesh bag with shell

4mm Spat on Shell

Remote Setting Results

• NYHS Performed 2 sets of oyster larvae

• Set 1: 3 million larvae on 30,000 shells

• Set 2: 6 million larvae in 50,000 shells

• Result: 80,000 shells each with an average of 25 oysters

• 2,000,000 oysters

Remote Setting Lessons Learned

1.Cleaner shells will result in a higher setting rate

2.Better access to our facility would allow for more control over conditions in the tanks

3.A Higher quality water supply would also be beneficial

Nursery and Growout

Pearl Net

Lantern Net

Spat on Shell Ready for Deployment

Grow out Results

• Approximately 70,000 shells

• Each shell containing between 10 and 20 live oysters

• Oysters ranged in size from 15 to 60mm

Growout lessons learned

• Start with fewer oysters in each net

• Reduce handling whenever possible

Reef Design

Each Reef Consists of…

• 23 cubic yards of rock

• 9 tons of clam shell

• 50,000 oysters on anywhere from 2,500-5,000 shells

US Army Corps of Engineers install the rock and shell on the Bay Ridge Flats Reef

Harvesting Techniques and Monitoring

• Extract oysters from eco-dock

• Empty oysters into crates and buckets

• Clean oysters

• Count and measure oysters in buckets

Distribution

• Oysters travel to reef sites in Harbor School vessels

• Oysters are distributed on reefs using buckets and quadrants for reference

• On dive sites, Bay Ridge Flats, Governors Island and Staten Island distribution is carried out by SCUBA teams

• Wading sites Aquaculture students and volunteers do the distribution being very careful not to step on the oysters

Harvesting and Spat on Shell Deployment

Diving Safely in New York Harbor

• SCUBA instructors Joe Gessert and LivDillon organized a Dive control Board made up of commercial divers

• This led to new protocols including full face masks, tethered dives, and safety divers ready at all times

• Currently Harbor School is in the process of becoming a scientific diver training facility

• This project would not have been possible without the dedication of our divers

• Students and teachers routinely arrived on Governors Island hours before school, often while it was still dark

• Despite air temperatures below 40° and water temperatures below 50° all 250,000

oysters are down

Buckets as Standard