Project Description
To compensate for the injuries to natural resources in the Delaware Estuary as a result of the M/T Athos I oil spill, funding was provided to restore oyster beds in Delaware Bay. Oyster reefs provide many ecological benefits in coastal bays and estuaries. Numerous species of fish and crabs take up residence in the cavities and crevices, and sessile organisms including barnacles and mussels settle on the hard substrates. Schools of forage fish congregate around the reefs, and larger predatory species such as striped bass, summer flounder, black drum, and bluefish utilize these habitats as feeding grounds. Oyster reefs help protect shorelines and aquatic vegetation from erosion by buffering them from wave action. Oysters are also effective filter feeders, removing algae, suspended sediments and excess nutrients from the water. Oyster populations have experienced a sharp decline since the early 1900s due to unsustainable harvesting, and diseases caused by protozoan parasites such as Dermo and MSX.
Eastern oysters begin their lives as free-swimming larvae. When they find a hard substrate such as shells or rocks, they attach themselves to the surface where they will live for the rest of their lives. Once settled, the small oysters are known as spat. They typically grow around one inch per year, and become juveniles at one year of age, and adults by their third year. For this restoration effort, the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife placed a mixture of surf clam, hard clam, and oysters shells on the bottom at the "Over the Bar" oyster beds on the Delaware side of the bay. This area was a historic seed bed but had limited shell bottom resulting in low natural spat settlement and few adult oysters. The shells were deposited onto the bottom of the bay in June and July 2011 to provide substrate for the spat to settle on in late summer and early fall. More shells were deposited on the oyster beds in 2012 and 2013, and a monitoring program was initiated to evaluate spatfall for five years.
Parties Implementing Restoration
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
DOI Project Representatives
Fish and Wildlife Service