Dead oyster shells that will soon be homes for many other live oysters.

On Thursday November 10th we went to Governor’s Island and did volunteering for the Billion Oyster Project. Our group drilled and tagged oysters and cleaned dead oyster shells that came in from restaurants. Don’t worry we didn’t kill any oysters, the alive oysters are connected to the dead shells that we drilled. After we drilled through the dead shell we put tags, that were filled with information about the oyster such as the date and where it is from, on the oyster using the hole to secure them in. The other thing we did was clean dead oyster shells so they could be use to create little oyster reefs/ the things we drilled through earlier. One dead oyster shell can hold up to 50 live oysters! The cleaner the shells were the more oysters there would be. We learned a lot on that field work. We learned about everything oysters do, we learned about how many oysters that could fit on one dead shell, how they can provide habitats for other sea creatures and that they are nature’s way to clean water. During the fieldwork there was a lot of hard physical work. The whole day we were working and learning about restoring oysters into the ecosystem. It was cold and wet but still a good and fun experience. One thing I still want to learn is how do oysters clean the water and what in the water are they getting rid of.