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Founded in 2014 with a goal to reintroduce a billion oysters into the New York Harbor by 2035, the Billion Oyster Project is giving spent oyster shells a second life. Oyster restoration begins outside the state, passing through local restaurants, with a year-long rest at Governors Island, and into the waters surrounding the five boroughs. “Oysters are just so much more than for your consumption. They clean the water, they provide habitat for other marine species, they are lessening that wave energy so that hopefully the storm that’s coming isn’t going to flood your basement,” said Jennifer Zhu, the BOP’s marine habitat resource specialist. “They are the most resilient New Yorkers that are out there.” Sixty restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn participate in the shell collection program. The shells are cured for a year before volunteers and BOP staff pour them into plastic trays, mesh bags and metal cages, and then into shipping containers that are filled with harbor water and millions of oyster larvae. Once the baby oysters are visible to the human eye, they go into the harbor as part of a reef.
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