> this is a volunteer opportunity where people restore the oyster population. while also simultaneously eating... oysters?
Pretty neat, right? Turns out oyster larvae can’t just attach to anything. And one of the best materials for them to take root on is oyster shells. So you fly in oysters from around North America, charge a ticket price, have a good time; and then load the dried shells into chicken-wire crates (volunteers build them), lower them into reefs [1] and then innoculate them with larvae. After a few seasons, the water around the reef becomes clean enough to allow for doing it again. (Oysters are filter feeders. You don’t want to eat ones growing in dirty water.)
Pretty neat, right? Turns out oyster larvae can’t just attach to anything. And one of the best materials for them to take root on is oyster shells. So you fly in oysters from around North America, charge a ticket price, have a good time; and then load the dried shells into chicken-wire crates (volunteers build them), lower them into reefs [1] and then innoculate them with larvae. After a few seasons, the water around the reef becomes clean enough to allow for doing it again. (Oysters are filter feeders. You don’t want to eat ones growing in dirty water.)
[1] https://www.billionoysterproject.org/reefs/