Mississippi Oyster Gardening Program
Implementing Organization
State of Mississippi
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$500,000
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
The project will be implemented over a five-year period utilizing volunteers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast (Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties). This community-volunteer based program is a continuation of the current National Fish and Wildlife Fund-Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (NFWF-GEBF) project in which volunteers grow sub-adult oysters from spat on shell stock in gardens that hang from waterfront piers/wharves and docks in Mississippi coastal waters. Project objectives include the production of approximately 1,000 sub-adult oysters per site per year. Estimates indicate that approximately 210,000 sub-adult oysters could be produced over the five-year life of the project, enough for a density of 20 oysters per square meter across approximately 3 acres of oyster reef.
Contact
Chris Wells(601) 961-5545
cwells@mdeq.ms.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/