Leaving our mark on a CBF shell shaker.

          Today we spent our time with members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) at The Shady Side Oyster Restoration Center. Our primary task of the day was "shaking shell" which helps to clean and sort oyster shells before oyster larvae can "set" on them. Before taking this class, I had little to no knowledge of the life cycles of oysters, and I had no idea why spending the day cleaning shells would help restore the Chesapeake Bay. Now I think that the way we sent our day is one of the best things to do for oysters, and consequently the health of the Bay over all.

          Oysters begin their lives as microscopic larvae (here is a link to a picture from one of CBFs blogs of oyster larvae http://cbf.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bfb5353ef0168eba978f1970c-800wi) and pretty much all larvae do is swim around, eat algae, and not much else. After a few weeks, the larvae become "hot" meaning that they have developed enough to look for a place to cement themselves (also called setting), begin to grow, and form a shell. Oyster larvae can't set just anywhere, they need a place that is hard and sturdy, and the ideal place place for them to set is on other oyster shells. After an oyster larvae has set, it is referred to as "spat", or "spat on shell". I highly recommend saying "spat on shell" out loud at your next available opportunity, because it is disproportionately fun to say. Eventually, when baby oysters set on older oysters, they begin to form big reefs, which provide excellent habitat for for many of the other inhabitants of the bay.

          Organizations like CBF and Horn Point Hatchery (where we toured yesterday) are working on restoring oyster reefs in the bay, and since oyster reefs provide excellent habitat for many species, they filter the bay, and they provide income to the people living around the bay, these organizations see oysters as critical to improving the overall health on the bay. Since oyster larvae like to set on old oyster shells, the first place to start when forming an oyster reef, is to make sure the larvae have shells to grow on. However, before oyster shells can be used to make a reef, they need to sit in the sun for about a year to kill any diseases or pathogens on the shells. As they sit, the shells chip and degrade a little, and dirt and other things can get incorporated into the pile of shells, making them less ideal for larvae to set on, which is where our class comes in.

Emily Grace doing some serious "shell shaking" to prepare
them for spat-on-shell.

Introducing the bagged oyster larvae from Horn Point to water.

          Our class and other CBF workers shoveled oyster shells onto large screens, and shook them so that the small shell fragments and dirt would fall through, leaving only the big, intact, cleaner shells. We then dumped them into metal cages (which were specifically designed for this) and once they were full, a forklift took them to the dock near the 4 oyster setting tanks, where they were moved by crane into the tanks. Each cage, when full of oyster shells, weighs around one ton. 1 of the tanks was ready to go with shells, but the other 3 were not. Our class accounted for shaking 13 tons of the 24 tons of shells that were cleaned today, setting a record for Shady Side. After the cages were placed in the tanks, our class got to introduce the oyster larvae that we picked up at Horn Point the day before, which was a real treat. The oyster larvae will stay in the tanks for a few weeks until they become spat on shell, and then they will be taken for a ride in the Patricia Campbell, CBFs oyster restoration vessel (which we also got a tour of) and placed in a reef somewhere in the bay.

Pouring the oyster larvae into setting tanks where they'll
become spat-on-shell. Eventually the shells will be added to
reefs by the Patricia Campbell (right).

Reef balls pulled from the bay, covered with oysters.

          Despite the sweating, the sunburns, the jammed fingers, and the fact that my arms still feel a little bit like wet noodles, I found our work shaking shell to feel highly rewarding, and I am sure my classmates do too. Our class has officially been a part of restoring the bay, and the knowledge that our 12 million oyster children will soon be doing their part to help save the bay is an uplifting feeling.