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Creek-side harvests yield cleaner Bay
By Alex J. Berkman
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The Chesapeake Bay’s murky and polluted state has led to many government resolutions aimed at fixing and maintaining its sanctity, but a group of Northern Neck residents are taking a more organic approach.
Oysters, the one-time livelihood of watermen, are now being produced by some, mainly for their ability to naturally filter pollutants from the water.
Being filter-feeders, when water passes through oysters, the bivalve-mollusks collect nutrients, sediment, pollutant and oxygen. An adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day.
This organic feeding process is how the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is working to clean the bay – one mollusk at a time.
Bette Gruben has been “gardening” oysters for three years now and says that she has seen an appreciable difference in the water near her home in Ditchley.
Using Taylor floats, rectangular floating baskets made of PVC pipe and mesh, and hanging mesh bags, Gruben puts infant oysters, or “spat,” in the water, allowing them to mature and in the process filtering the water.
“They work like the liver,” Gruben said. “Like a pool filter.”
As they grow, they clear the murky water allowing for more sunlight to penetrate. This creates more growth of vegetation and subsequently more crabs, fish and other organisms, Gruben explained.
She frequently has house guests who enjoy fishing in the cove behind her home and have reported more success then before she began oyster gardening, she said.
Gruben first began gardening oysters after attending a Chesapeake Bay Foundation workshop. After learning about the process and benefits, she paid $30 for a bushel of 1,000 spat, or “seeds.”
If 100 percent of the oysters planted reach maturity, up to 50,000 gallons of water could be filtered per day from that one bushel.
Her first season of gardening oysters was less than successful, though. She thought if the oysters got dirty they would not survive, so she cleaned them frequently, causing them to die.
But, since then, her oysters’ survival rate has increased to approximately 75 percent, she said.
“The less you do, the better yield you get,” Gruben said.
When the oysters reach maturity, they are returned to the foundation during a “round-up” event. The adult oysters are placed on a reef in the Bay and gardners receives more spat – starting the process over again.
Gruben is trying a new method of gardening. Now she plants some of her spat on the shells of mature oysters, which the foundation believes will have a higher survival rate, she said.
The process, though long and sometimes fruitless, is the most efficient way for the environmentally conscious to reverse the bay’s downward spiral.
“It’s the most benefit for time spent cleaning the bay,” Gruben said.
A training seminar for those interesting in becoming oyster gardeners will be held at the Tides Inn in Irvington on Saturday, September 19. Call the Chesapeake Bay Foundation at 757/622-1964 for more details.
The Reedville Fisherman’s Museum will also be holding a workshop on the mollusk maintenance process on Saturday, September 12. |
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