Just before school lets out for the summer, Mrs. Kelsey Cook’s 4th grade science students at Easton Elementary will be getting their hands dirty in the name of oyster restoration. Together, with the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center and the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Maryland, students will build oyster reef balls as part of the Living Reef Action Campaign.
This experience is the final piece of a year-long Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) being provided by the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center. This project is funded by a Bay Watershed Education and Training grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Education. As part of the program, students learn about how important oysters are to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and discuss some of the issues that oysters face, such as disease and population declines due to overfishing in the 1800’s. Students take a field trip to the new Phillips Wharf location inside Easton Point Park and learn about oyster anatomy, food webs, watersheds, and water quality, along with the opportunity to think about how our daily choices can impact the Bay and oysters. The program ends with students choosing an action project to support healthy oyster populations.
“At the 4th grade level, we see a lot of action projects that are education based, such as stickers, videos, or t-shirts to help spread awareness about oysters and how important they are,” says Dr. Kristen Lycett, the Executive Director of the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center. “When Mrs.
Cook’s students chose to do an oyster reef ball building project, we were really excited but we had to figure out how to make it happen.” This is where the CCA Maryland was brought in to help. In 2015, they developed the Living Reef Action Campaign (LRAC) to support hands-on student learning in environmental education. The program utilizes two mobile reef ball building
trailers that provide students with hands-on building experiences at their school. “Finding outside help was so important for making this project a reality,” says Dr. Lycett. “From purchasing supplies, to running the building session, to having the permits and connections to get these reef balls actually out in the water, the team at CCA Maryland are providing the expertise needed to bring this project to life.”
Oyster reef balls are man made structures, often made of concrete, that provide habitat for oysters and other marine life. They can be used to help build new oyster reefs and restore or
expand existing reefs. Here in Maryland, reef balls have been deployed all over the Chesapeake Bay, from the Magothy River, to the waters off Tilghman Island, to the St. Mary’s River, to Herring Run Bay.
The LRAC program has become so popular that fundraising is currently underway for a third trailer that will focus on providing these hands-on experiences to students on the Eastern Shore. As it stands, the two existing trailers are constantly on the move to meet the demand for reef ball building programs, traveling from the Western Shore to the Eastern Shore and back in the same week. “The eastern shore is no stranger to participating in LRAC and building reefs,” says Jim Talbott, the president of Gillespie Precast and the Coastal Conservation Association leader who kicked off the efforts to fund a new trailer. “As an angler and someone who has spent a career in concrete, I’m proud to see those two worlds collide through this program. The new trailer and equipment will provide for decades of connecting our local communities to enhancing habitat and learning important skills. That is a win-win.”
Enhancing oyster habitat is exactly why Mrs. Cook and her students chose to do a reef ball build. “My 4th grade students and I are grateful for this opportunity to experience a hands-on project that will directly contribute to the protection and habitat enhancement of oysters right here in our backyard,” says Mrs. Cook. “It has been exciting to work alongside Phillips Wharf and the Coastal Conservation Association Maryland this year to educate our students about the benefits of oyster reef balls in the Chesapeake Bay. After our first education session with Phillips Wharf, my students were eager to have our MWEE action project be something that would benefit our local ecosystem in a powerful way. After research, we found that oyster reef balls were the perfect, long-term solution for us to positively support our oyster restoration goals. I am beyond proud of my students and am so thankful for every helping hand in this journey to make this project happen!” In order to cover the costs associated with the reef ball building session, Phillips Wharf applied for and received a Youth Environmental Education grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust. These funds are provided by sales of the “Protect the Chesapeake & Coastal Bays” license plates, so if you have one of these specialty plates, you’re on that list of helping hands.
“The blue crab, Callinectessapidus, is an important crustacean species along the Atlantic coasts of North and South America. In the Chesapeake, it serves as prey for a variety of other species and serves as an important fishery,” said Lycett. “In fact, the U.S. blue crab fishery brought in $197 million in 2017, $48 million of which came from the state of Maryland. However, blue crab populations along the eastern coast of the United States have seen major fluctuations and even declines in recent years.”
The Fishmobile is equipped with 13 estuarine tanks, two touch tanks, and interactive displays and exhibits focused on the Chesapeake Bay and its inhabitants.