I’m an Oyster Mama!

At 71, I’m a new mama, and I’m excited. No, I’m not expecting a baby. I’m part of a program to create oyster bars to reduce pollution in the St. Martin River, where I live. I joined the program because — why not? Why not help, if you can?

Oysters are a natural source of water filtration, and can filter up to 50 gallons of water every day. They pump water through their gills, trapping food and nutrients, chemical pollutants and suspended residues. Man-made water filtration is expensive and time-consuming. Oysters are a natural and sustainable solution. But for an ongoing solution, you need an ongoing supply of new oysters, and that’s where oyster mamas and papas come in.

Oysters reproduce when fertilized eggs become spat that attach themselves to shells and rocks. Under the right conditions, oyster spats can grow quickly, but tides often carry the spats far from their point of origin, so getting oysters to grow where you want them – on an existing oyster reef – can be challenging. Program volunteers collect discarded oyster shells from local restaurants and attach spats to them. Oyster “foster parents” receive a small nursery cage (think crab trap). and dozens of oyster shells impregnated with oyster spats. We drop the cage in the tidal water off our bulkhead, about one foot from the bottom, and wait. A dozen or more new oysters can grow on the shell of a single half oyster. In a year or more, the seed oysters are mature enough to be relocated to oyster reefs that help clean the river.

I love that old oysters become the home of new oysters. Like young trees whose roots follow pathways created by former trees and thereby implant themselves more deeply, this resonates with me. It feels like the circle of life, with the older oysters helping to pave the way for the next generation. We’re doing that too.

I’m of an age where legacy feels increasingly important. It’s not what I leave, I know, it’s what I make. For years, however, I felt that making a difference called for big actions with big results, think big or not at all. Recently, I decided that small actions still leave a positive mark. So I’m improving the world with baby steps, one oyster at a time, and it’s a path worth taking.