Act Locally- Volunteer for Sanibel’s Oyster Reef Restoration Tuesday, February 2nd, 16th, & 23rd 9 AM to Noon at Bowman’s Beach
Volunteers are needed to assist with the oyster reef restoration for Clam Bayou. Volunteers will fill mesh bags with fossilized shell.
This spring, the bags will be used to build oyster habitat in Clam Bayou. By deploying fossilized shell, we are providing hard surface substrate for young oysters, also known as “spat”, to attach to. Oysters provide nursery and feeding habitat and can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day. That would be like the average person drinking over 800 gallons of water in a 24 hour period.
The oyster restoration effort in Clam Bayou is funded by grants from NOAA and The Nature Conservancy and through the in-kind support of the City of Sanibel and the National Association of Counties. For more information about this project, please read the attached flyer. (pdf 218.62 kB)
Interested participants, including clubs and groups, MUST register with Sabrina Lartz at the SCCF Marine Lab at (239) 395-4617 or by email slartz@sccf.org . Although some tasks are very physically demanding (shoveling shell, lifting & dumping buckets of shell into mesh bags), there are other tasks that are less so (cutting mesh, tying bags, preparing bags for filling). Additional details, including what to wear/bring, directions, and parking, will be provided upon registration.
