Return to wild for R.I. oysters?

UNCHARTED WATERS: A contractor from East Coast Construction uses a high-pressure hose to deploy oyster shells in Quonochontaug Pond for a project spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy. The oyster shells are from Newport Harbor Corp.’s restaurants and Matunuck Oyster Bar, which are collaborating with the group. / COURTESY THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
UNCHARTED WATERS: A contractor from East Coast Construction uses a high-pressure hose to deploy oyster shells in Quonochontaug Pond for a project spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy. The oyster shells are from Newport Harbor Corp.’s restaurants and Matunuck Oyster Bar, which are collaborating with the group. / COURTESY THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

Wild oysters, with their craggy shells and the natural, complex reefs they grow on, are almost just a memory in Rhode Island – 99 percent of them are gone.
“What happened to the wild oysters? The answer is complex. No one knows exactly why they’re disappearing,” said John Torgan, director of ocean and coastal conservation for The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island.
“There have been water-quality problems in salt ponds and estuaries,” he said. “It’s a combination of environmental conditions and over-harvesting.”
Rhode Island does produce plenty of oysters – those are farmed oysters, however, from the state’s growing aquaculture industry. Those oysters grow in more-regularly shaped shells that sit nicely on a plate on a restaurant table.
Demand for them is strong – 6.4 million were sold for consumption in 2013, according to David Beutel, aquaculture coordinator for the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council.
“There’s an appetite for boutique oysters on the half shell,” said Torgan.
While “boutique” oysters are important in their own right, Torgan is focused on wild oysters, which were once common in Rhode Island waters.
That focus is not just on the wild oysters, but on a broader and deeper environmental vision to restore oyster reefs, said Torgan.
Oysters have an important impact on water quality. A large, adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day, which not only clears the water, but also supplies vital nutrients to the reef, he said.
Oyster reefs also provide habitat for many species of marine life, including juvenile flounder, sea bass and tautog, he said.
Wild oysters are not completely gone from Rhode Island waters, said Beutel. “There are some spots where there may be oysters on concrete or rocks.”
Some of them, however, are in waters where shellfishing is prohibited because water quality would make eating them a health hazard, he said.
“I’ve found oysters as big as my foot,” added Beutel. “They’ve gotten that big because they’re in prohibited waters and no one can take them.”
And three years into a project called Oysters Gone Wild, which is restoring some natural oyster reefs in Rhode Island waters, the pace has picked up due to collaboration among The Nature Conservancy, Matunuck Oyster Bar and five restaurants owned by Newport Harbor Corp. One habit contributing to the disappearance of oyster reefs has been the disposal of oyster shells into the landfill, said Torgan.
That’s changed, at least for the participating Rhode Island restaurants.
“We’ve collected and returned about 150 tons of oyster shells since the program started in 2011, with most of them in 2013 and 2014,” said Torgan.
Those 150 tons of shells are now in protected waters in sanctuary zones.
“We’ve collected another 100 tons since then and will let them cure through this coming winter,” said Torgan. Then those 100 tons of shells will become oyster reefs.
Although oyster-reef restoration in Rhode Island may be off to a modest start, The Nature Conservancy has a big vision.
“We want to change the culture,” said Torgan. “We want to get those oyster shells back into the water and build new reefs.”
Rhode Island’s near extinction of oyster reefs is not unique – there’s been about an 85 percent decline in oyster reefs worldwide, he said.
“There used to be oyster reefs in Narragansett Bay,” said Torgan. “I’ve seen the historical maps that show the oyster leases up into Providence harbor.”
Those reefs began with the shells of wild oysters, then seed oysters grew into baby oysters, then when ready, they’d be harvested with tongs, he said.
“They would usually steam them and make stew, then put the shells back in the water,” he said. “That was the practice until the early 1900s.”
With the Oysters Gone Wild project and shells getting back into the water, the first new reef was created in Ninigret Pond in Charlestown in 2012.
“We put the shells in mesh bags, then loaded them onto a truck, then put them on small boats. We had some divers, but we could wade into the water where it was 3-or-4 feet deep and stack the bags,” said Torgan.
This year, two quarter-acre reefs were created in Quonochaontaug Pond in Charlestown using a slightly different method. “We took the shells and loaded them on barges and the shells were sprayed off with a high-pressure hose,” said Torgan. “We put seed oysters on the reef and we’ll do that again in the spring.”
The shells have also been used to create Rhode Island’s first “living shoreline” along 500 feet of eroding marshland along the Narrow River, in part of the John H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge in Narragansett. In addition to the shells, the project uses “coir” logs made from coconut fiber.
The project offers a more-natural approach than hard structures such as seawalls for preventing shoreline erosion.
All those shells are coming from Rhode Island restaurants, including Matunuck Oyster Bar in South Kingstown and five of Newport Harbor’s restaurants – Hemenway’s in Providence, the Boat House in Tiverton and three Newport restaurants, Castle Hill, 22 Bowen’s and The Mooring.
“We used to throw the oyster shells in the trash. It just wasn’t on our radar,” said Brian Mansfield, director of procurement for Newport Harbor.
“Every Monday, Matunuck Oyster Bar sends a truck to pick up the shells at our restaurants and leaves a nice, clean, fresh bucket at each one,” said Mansfield. “We cover the cost of that. For the truck and gas and labor, that could add up to about $10,000 a year. They put a lot of time and energy into getting the shells and taking them to a site where they’re cured. ”
Those five company restaurants serve a substantial amount of oysters, with several varieties on the menu every day, probably going through 15,000 to 20,000 oysters a week, said Mansfield.
The restaurants don’t use the oyster-shell recycling as a promotional tool with customers, he said.
“We’re not preachy about it. We do it because it’s the right thing to do,” said Mansfield. “We are definitely motivated to help restore the oyster reefs.
“I’ve been in Rhode Island for 25 years, and it’s a little sad to me that it’s gotten to this level with the wild oysters,” said Mansfield. “The Nature Conservancy has a pretty grand vision, and I’m very optimistic.” •

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