Oyster Grow-Out and Restoration Reef Placement
Implementing Organization
State of Alabama
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$962,370
Known Leveraged Funding
$0
Funding Organization
Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (NRDA)
Funding Program
Natural Resource Damage Assessment NRDA
Details
Project Category
Environmental
Project Actions
Species Restoration
Targeted Resources
Oysters/Reefs
Project Description
The project will create up to three “off-bottom oyster grow-out areas” in Grand Bay, Portersville Bay, and Bon Secour Bay. The project will be conducted by Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) in coordination with its other oyster gardening activities. The project will also identify and establish priorities for locating future restoration reefs, including nearshore living shorelines and intertidal reefs. Project success will also be monitored in terms of oyster survival and reproduction at both the grow-out areas and restoration sites in order to determine effectiveness of these techniques in increasing the sustainability of oyster populations in Alabama. This project will build on other efforts such as Alabama Coastal Foundation's (ACF) Oyster Shell Recycling Program and the Mobile Bay Oyster Gardening effort, which recently received approval to expand into Little Lagoon. In addition, the project will extend investigations similar to the recently completed project funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation-Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, that demonstrated plantings of advanced stock-sized oysters in Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound can potentially reduce aggressive predation by oyster drills. Monitoring will be conducted for the five-year duration of the project to determine its effectiveness and support adaptive management activities.
Contact
Amy Hunter(251) 621-1216
Amy.Hunter@dcnr.alabama.gov
Project Website
None
For official trustee information regarding the Deepwater Horizon NRDA, including information regarding the NRDA process and the status of projects, see https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/