Will oysters help to clean up Chesapeake Bay and New York Harbor or will climate change take them out? The question came to mind recently when I read about the world’s largest man-made oyster reef recently finished on Harris Creek on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The 330-acre Harris Creek reef is the first of 10 planned reefs which will be stocked with more than 1 billion oysters.

In New York City, there is a similar project, on a smaller scale but with comparable ambitions. The Billion Oyster Project’s goal is to return 1 billion oysters into the New York harbor over the next twenty years. So far they have restored 16 million, which is not a bad start. The BOP is also actively educating a new generation of students in the science and engineering of ecosystem restoration.

From the BOP website: Students at New York Harbor School have been growing and restoring oysters in New York Harbor for the last six years. They have learned to SCUBA dive safely, raise oyster larvae, operate and maintain vessels, build and operate commercial-scaled oyster nurseries, design underwater monitoring equipment and conduct long-term authentic research projects all in the murky, contaminated, fast moving waters of one of the busiest ports in the country. Together and with the help of many partners these students have restored over eleven million oysters. Thirty-six public schools have partnered with the project to provide authentic, place-based science and math lessons through the lens of oyster restoration. Each year, thousands of students participate in these learning opportunities.

Oysters are an aquatic marvel. Each adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per per day. Oysters remove nutrients, algae, plankton, and pollutants resulting in cleaner, clearer water. A billion oysters could filter over 18 trillion gallons of water each year. Oysters also increase the biodiversity of a waterway by attracting fish and other marine life and can help control erosion and flooding.

The good news is that oyster reefs could significantly clean our harbors and waterways. The bad news is that ocean acidification due to the absorption of CO2 as a result of climate change could threaten their recovery.

A few months ago, Mark Bittman of the New York Times visited the Hog Island Oyster Co. in Marshall, CA to see the impact of climate on their operations.