New York Harbor once held half the world's oyster population. Discover how the team at Billion Oyster Project is racing to restore this underwater ecosystem
00:00On a weekday morning on Governor's Island, volunteers gather with shovels in hand, ready to tackle what may seem like an unusual mission, washing millions of oyster shells.
00:16These volunteers are part of an ambitious environmental restoration project that's both capturing international attention and setting a new model for urban conservation.
00:27Welcome to Billion Oyster Project, where New York City is literally rebuilding its underwater ecosystem one oyster at a time.
00:37The mission of Billion Oyster Project is to restore oyster reefs to New York City Harbor through public education initiatives.
00:43It's an ambitious goal, putting one billion oysters back into New York Harbor.
00:48But for the team at Billion Oyster Project, it's not just about the numbers.
00:53It's about restoring what was once there, while creating new opportunities for New Yorkers to connect with their harbor.
01:01Before New York was the Big Apple, it was the Big Oyster.
01:04Over half of the world's population of oysters was right here in the city.
01:07We completely over-harvested them.
01:09Much like today's hot dog vendors, oyster carts once lined the streets of Manhattan.
01:14But as the city grew and maritime traffic increased, these vast oyster reefs were eventually dredged out.
01:21This loss wasn't just economic, the impacts were also environmental.
01:26One adult oyster, which is the size of my cuff palm, which is like what you would eat at a restaurant, that would be considered mature and adult.
01:32And they can filter 50 gallons of water a day or up to, which is the size of a bathtub, an adult bathtub, which is a lot of water.
01:39That filtration power is desperately needed.
01:42A billion oysters could filter the standing volume of New York Harbor every three days, serving as a natural water treatment plant that works around the clock.
01:52Oysters are colonial. They grow together. They're attracted to calcium carbonate, which is what their shells are made out of.
01:58So they'll grow on top of each other and with each other. They're really crazy organic reef structures that they build.
02:04And those are really important for all the critters and species that live in our harbor, like small fish.
02:09They're great nurseries. They're great places for crabs to be.
02:12These reef structures not only provide critical habitat for marine life, but in large enough numbers,
02:18and seafloor coverage can also serve as natural seawalls, breaking up wave energy and protecting New York's shoreline from erosion and storm surge,
02:28a lesson that became painfully clear during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
02:33So how does this entire restoration process work? It all begins with discarded oyster shells.
02:39We partner with 80 different restaurants across New York City. So people like you and me go into restaurants,
02:45we eat oysters, and then the workers will collect all of our shells and bring it here.
02:49They sit here for about a year where we let the wind get to it, the sun bleach it, the critters pick at it, and the rain wash it off.
02:56To date, the project has collected about 3 million pounds of shells.
03:01These shells are then processed through a tumbler machine to remove any remaining debris.
03:06The project's volunteers are crucial every step of the way.
03:10I see people here that are high school students all the way to, you know, retired seniors.
03:14And it's really, I think the binding thing is everyone cares about their community and doing whatever part they can to help that community,
03:22to help the climate change mitigation.
03:24People are getting involved because they want to be outside. It's beautiful outside.
03:28People want to make friends and do something that they are excited about. People want to learn.
03:33Billion Oyster Project has innovated beyond traditional restoration methods.
03:38While initially using metal cages that rust and degrade over time, they've also started fabricating and deploying these e-concrete reef balls,
03:47artificial reef structures that are designed to last in the water.
03:51So these structures, not only is their shape really good for the water and like shoreline erosion just as is,
03:57but seeded with a bunch of oysters is like really good for the environment.
04:00The process of getting oysters onto these structures happens in setting tanks on Governor's Island.
04:07Oyster larvae, called velligers, are introduced to the tanks.
04:12Once the reef balls are seeded with young oysters, they're loaded by cranes onto boats and deployed to restoration sites throughout the harbor.
04:21Billion Oyster Project now has roughly 17 acres of restored reef, with over 150 million oysters already back in the water.
04:30But the full ecosystem impact can be seen far beyond the oysters themselves.
04:36This is where Zeke King Phillips and the field staff at Billion Oyster Project come in.
04:41Oyster research stations, a network of 200 monitoring cages across five burrows, serve as windows into the harbor's recovering ecosystem.
04:51Every oyster research station is basically a miniature reef that we use to understand oyster performance.
04:57That's growth, recruitment, mortality, and biodiversity around the harbor.
05:01We'll pull up the oyster research station and we'll help them learn to measure oysters, identify the species that come out of them.
05:09What they're finding in these cages is remarkable.
05:12On one monitoring expedition, Zeke and I witnessed firsthand the biodiversity returning to New York waters.
05:20A single cage housing not just oysters, but an entire ecosystem.
05:25This one just has a ton of mud crabs in it.
05:27A bunch of hydroids.
05:29They are nadaria, so related to jellyfish and coral.
05:33So these are sea squirts, are the brown orbs almost.
05:37When you push them, they squirt.
05:39Also, they're covered in tunicates, sort of, I would say, purple-ish flower pattern.
05:43However, the real excitement came when Zeke located a blue spot blenny, a small fish that had made its home in the oyster cage and was actively guarding its eggs.
05:53So this is the kind of thing we want to find in our oyster cages, right?
05:56We want to put oysters in the water and then find that they have attracted a bunch of these sort of sessile invertebrates.
06:02But we also hope that they attract fish to sort of lay their eggs and raise their young in our cages.
06:09Blue crabs, butterfly fish, striped sea anemones, and even American eels have been documented.
06:17There's nothing like your first seahorse. It's like a magical experience.
06:20Structures in the harbor, like these oyster cages and reef balls, provide viable habitat on top of the oxygen-depleted mud called black mayonnaise, collecting at the harbor floor.
06:32Nothing can live in that mud.
06:34So worms, all of those small animals that might burrow in mud otherwise, simply can't live there.
06:40So by putting oysters in the water, you can encourage that biodiversity to accumulate.
06:45For many New Yorkers, the idea that their harbor could support such rich marine life comes as a complete surprise.
06:52In a city as big and as bustling as New York, it's really easy to be disconnected from the fact that we are a city on the water.
06:59We have a really incredible waterfront.
07:02This disconnect brings to the forefront the project's educational component.
07:07Through school partnerships and community programs, students and residents are brought directly to the water's edge,
07:14allowing them to pull up research cages and discover what's living beneath the surface.
07:20The work has gained international recognition.
07:23Cities across the United States and around the world are studying the New York City model.
07:29There's been a lot of interest globally across the country as well in sort of bringing this kind of restoration work to other cities.
07:35We had our executive director visiting with the King of Jordan to talk about oyster restoration.
07:39We had Prince William come visit to really learn about what we're doing here to restore ecosystems.
07:45We get a lot of requests from organizations sort of around the country and the world that are interested in sort of how we do the work we do.
07:53Now, not to say that we've sort of sparked a revolution, but it feels that way.
07:57But success brings new challenges. Scaling up to reach one billion oysters requires overcoming significant obstacles.
08:06Funding remains a constant concern. Putting oysters in the water is expensive, requiring boats, equipment, staff and ongoing monitoring.
08:15Perhaps more complex is regulation. Because the harbor remains polluted with sewage overflow, the restored oysters cannot be eaten.
08:24This creates a regulatory puzzle for agencies trying to balance environmental benefits with public health concerns.
08:32The benefits of putting oysters in the water are something we constantly have to explain.
08:36Even though sort of we've seen some benefits, it's still something that regulators are very hesitant about
08:42because it can pose a health and human safety hazard if they're poached or vandalized in any way.
08:47Despite these challenges, the transformation continues.
08:50And for volunteers like Jonathan McKenna, the work represents hope that individual action can create meaningful environmental change.
09:00Climate change mitigation kind of has to happen on the local level these days, right?
09:04And so realizing that there are wonderful projects like this and really get my hands dirty doing the work here to put another billion oysters back in New York Harbor.
09:13So the next time you're eating oysters at a New York restaurant, remember that those shells might end up here, becoming part of an underwater forest that's slowly but steadily returning life to New York Harbor.
09:27For Cheddar, I'm Chris Castellino.
09:30I'm Chris Castellino.
09:32Thanks for this.
09:33You saw, well, in that right now, I mean, you have a save.
09:34David Ant of the time I can start seeing a nest in
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