FORT PIERCE — Jumping from boats into waist-deep, brackish water, nearly two dozen people formed a chain alongside a small island in the Indian River Lagoon.

Their mission? To create an oyster reef in the hope of improving the health of the 156-mile-long estuary.

Oyster reefs, built of discarded shells gathered from beaches and restaurants on the Treasure Coast, can replenish depleted oyster populations, provide habitat for marine life, and improve water quality by filtering gallons of water each day. Building the reefs has been a project of St. Lucie County, the Florida Oceanographic Society, the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program and the University of Florida’s St. Lucie County Extension Office for about four years. The groups hope to create 11 reefs, growing oysters as larvae, called “spat,” that come through the area and attach to the old shells.

“It would be a wonderful thing for the lagoon,” said captain Barry “Chop” Lege, who leads boat tours on the lagoon and helped transport volunteers to the site last week.

Volunteers, working on a reef about three-quarters of an acre in size, wore hats against the sun and sturdy shoes to guard against sharp oyster shells. They eagerly passed bag after bag of oyster shells from person to person until about 400 bags had been placed in lines curved to match the rising tide.

Adult oysters can filter about 25 gallons to 50 gallons of water each day, said Vincent Encomio, an oyster researcher with the Florida Oceanographic Society. Doing so removes pollutants, sediment and nutrients from the water, but oysters have to survive long enough to perform that function.

It can take two to three years for an oyster to grow to “market size,” Encomio said.

The oysters’ decline in the lagoon is part of the research being done by the various groups, said James Oppenborn, St. Lucie County’s marine resource coordinator.

It is likely the result of a combination of factors, from overharvesting by people to increased salinity in the lagoon from digging inlets, he said.

To help the oysters grow, volunteers and researchers placed the shells between the tides, which will expose them at a time when predators are most likely to retreat, Oppenborn said.

Lege, on boat tours, has seen people taking oysters from the lagoon, although it is not illegal to do so. When asked, many will say they just wanted a few, he said. Too often, the oysters are so small that they’re hardly worth eating, he said.

“It’s just robbing the system as fast as we can replace them,” he said.

Tom Black, a volunteer from Fort Pierce, said he came out to help because growing up in West Palm Beach he saw the environment deteriorate. After moving to the Treasure Coast in the 1970s, he saw similar destruction of the area’s natural resources and then, in the more recent past, efforts to restore it.

“It’s a chance to help give back a little bit to the environment,” he said.

Tags: environment, St. Lucie County

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