Cultch Plant Oyster Restoration

Implementing Organization

State of Louisiana

Overview

DWH Project Funding

$10,070,000

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

This project will place cultch in relic reef areas of Louisiana public oyster seed grounds (POSG). One targeted site is a 200-acre area on the Caillou Lake public oyster seed reservation (POSR) in Terrebonne Parish. The project will programmatically plan for inclusion of additional cultch plants within the Biloxi Marsh Complex in St. Bernard Parish or within the footprints of other POSG or POSR's in the future. The objective of the cultch plant project is to create oyster reefs through the placement of cultch, thereby increasing oyster abundance and spawning stocks and offsetting impacts resulting from exposure to Deepwater Horizon oil, dispersant, and response activities. Constructing cultch plants entails placing cultch material (e.g., limestone rock, oyster shell, or fossilized oyster shell) on water bottoms in areas of suitable oyster habitat. Cultch provides a substrate for free floating oyster larvae to attach and grow, which in time results in a mature productive oyster reef.

Contact

Carolina Bourque
(337) 735-8726
cbourque@wlf.la.gov
Project Website

Project Partners

None

Affiliated Institutions

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/