This Sunday, July 28, 2013 at 2 PM, the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor will host the Staten Island premiere of the documentary Shellshocked: Saving Oysters to Save Ourselves.

Bob Wright and his musical group Harbortown will perform songs from their album Oyster Aristocracy featured in the film.  The film’s director Emily Driscoll and historian Barnett Shepherd, author of Tottenville: The Town that Oyster Built, will participate in a discussion after the screening.

SHELLSHOCKED: Saving Oysters to Save Ourselves

Shellshocked: Saving Oysters to Save Ourselves explores the importance and fragility of wild oysters in cleaning water and building ecosystems for other marine life. Today, because of overfishing and pollution, wild oyster reefs have been declared “the most severely impacted marine habitat on Earth” and no longer play a role in their ecosystems. Scientists, government officials, artists and students are fighting to bring oysters back to the former oyster capital of the world, New York Harbor.

Staten Island’s rich and flourishing oyster beds supported centuries of settlers, including the Lenape Indians. Some of the first African American communities in New York City were oyster farmers in Staten Island who escaped oppressive laws in the other states in order to take advantage of the opportunities oyster farming provided. Their descendants are featured in the Shellshocked.

Admission is free. For more information, go to the Noble Maritime Collection’s website, www.noblemaritime.org or visit www.shellshockedmovie.com.