New Menantic Creek Restoration Site on Shelter Island
If there is one quality that Shelter Islanders all share, it is their passion to protect the ponds, creeks, or harbors in which they love to swim, paddle, or harvest. So, it was no real surprise for Back to the Bays Aquaculture Coordinator and Islander, Kate Rossi-Snook, to see the enthusiastic groups of residents show up to the many Stewardship Sessions to help create the new spat-on-shell oyster reef in Coecles Harbor during the summer of 2023.
Two of those community volunteers were Arel and Erica English. As dedicated SPAT program members, Arel and Erica were already well aware of the water-filtering capabilities of oysters - a single adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day! - but through their stewardship, they learned of all the other beneficial ecosystem services that an entire reef can offer, such as critical nursery habitat for finfish and crabs. This positive experience led them to generously fund the pilot planting of spat-on-shell oysters as part of a new Menantic Creek Restoration Site in 2024.
The first step in starting an oyster reef is to assess the conditions of the site. “Knowing some of the water quality and flow issues that the creek has experienced in recent years, I wasn’t expecting it to be conducive to supporting an oyster reef,” said Kate, adding “but once I got my kayak up there, not only did I find decent sandy sediment, there were actually a handful of adult oysters set onto an old glass bottle, a brick, and even atop a shoreline cluster of ribbed mussels!”
Finding oysters set onto less-than-ideal items indicates that the creek’s conditions support a spawning population of oysters - most likely those held in the localized cluster of SPAT members’ floating cages (many of whom were recruited by Arel) - but it lacks the appropriate substrate onto which the spawned larvae can set. Planting an oyster reef can help offer that substrate as well as exponentially increase the number of oysters in the creek over time, and thus exponentially improve the water quality.
The Back to the Bays team is very excited to check on the growth and survival of the pilot planting come springtime, and hope to be able to expand our restoration work in the creek next year and beyond! We are so grateful for the support and enthusiasm shown by all of the Menantic Creek residents!
Left to Right: exploring Menantic Creek by kayak; adult oyster found buried in the sediment; Arel counts and measures baby oysters, or spat, prior to being planted while his friend and neighbor records the data; view from the shoreline post-planting.