Two southern Ocean County seafood restaurants are involved in what some might call a pearl of an idea— to use their recycled oyster shells to restore a reef habitat in Barnegat Bay.
"I am not sure that people understand what a huge role oysters play in keeping all of our waterways healthy, not just the Barnegat Bay. The alternative to recycling the shells is putting them in a dumpster and eventually into landfills, which does not benefit anyone," Melanie Magaziner told The Press of Atlantic City. Magaziner is an owner of The Old Causeway Steak and Oyster House and Mud City Crab House in Manahawkin.
The pilot shell recycling program is an initiative of the American Littoral Society. The Stockton University Marine Science and Environmental Field Station in Galloway Township, Atlantic County, serves as a storage site for the shells until they are placed into the bay.
One reason Magaziner said she got involved in the program was because her two restaurants serve so many oysters. Combined, The Old Causeway and Mud City Crab House go through about 5,000 oysters per week in the summer, she said.
Before the program began, oysters at the two restaurants were shucked and served, and then got put out with trash. With the recycling program, shells can be returned to the bay to create habitat for young oysters— or spat —which anchor onto shells and naturally create a reef.
"As a family run restaurant that relies on the health of Barnegat Bay, we are constantly looking for ways to stay proactive," Magaziner said.
"Last fall we sponsored a screening of 'Shell Shocked' at the LBI Arts Foundation. Helen Hunt from the Littoral Society was the mediator. When I started to do research regarding oyster shell recycling, I was put in touch with Helen once again. She took the helm from there and put the program in motion," she said.
Steve Evert, manager of Stockton's field station in Port Republic and assistant director of academic labs, drives by Magaziner's two restaurants on his way to work. He is a partner with the shell-recycling program and he makes biweekly stops at the restaurants to pick up shells and deliver them to the field station.
The oyster shells will cure for one year at the field station before they are reused during reef restoration projects in 2016. When shells are placed in an area with a wild oyster population, spawning occurs, and then larvae floating in the water column settle down and cement to the shells, Evert said.
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"They need hard substrate. That's the key. That's why we need the shell," he said. "There could be millions of oyster larvae in the water column, and when they settle down and it's just sandy mud, they're not going to be recruited. The idea is to create a source of suitable shell for the oyster spat to set on."
The shells will become a nursery for the next generation of coastal bay oysters, he said.
The shell-recycling program is the result of a grant funded by Restore America's Estuaries and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to investigate recycling programs— but instead they are starting one, said Alek Modjeski, a 1998 Stockton marine biology graduate and former student-worker at Stockton's field station. Modjeski currently is habitat restoration director at the American Littoral Society.
Recently, he said the same grant funding allowed 120 cubic yards of shell, an estimated 60,000 shells or more, to be planted in the bay off Good Luck Point in Berkeley Township.
Magaziner said she felt a special responsibility to help replenish the oyster reefs because her restaurant serves the shellfish. But she wants more people— and other seafood restaurants —to get involved in the program.
So she is spreading the word about recycling oysters.
"There's a multitude of reasons for oyster shell recycling. Yes, environmental awareness and bringing attention to Barnegat Bay are big reasons. But as an oyster bar that serves local oysters, we want to be sure that we have a plentiful selection for years to come," Magaziner said.
