Oysters can be a valuable environmental solution for shoreline restoration. Oyster reefs can support hundreds of marine species, improve water quality and protect against erosion and storm surges. Oysters also helps stabliize sediments and wave energy, which aids in the reduction of coastal erosion and the effects of sea-level rise. This week, listen to Claire Arre, Marine Restoration Director at Orange County Coastkeepers about how to use native oysters and eelgrass to bolster shorelines from the impacts of climate change. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/how-do-oyster-reefs-protect-shorelines-with-claire-arre/
For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/how-do-oyster-reefs-protect-shorelines-with-claire-arre/
Claire: Looking forward to what the climate is going to do to our coastal ecosystems our problems are going to build on top of each other. So we need to find better solutions.
Ethan: I’m Ethan Elkind, and this is Climate Break. One of those solutions? Using oysters and other native species as an alternative to man-made methods of dealing with climate change-induced storm surges and erosion, according to Claire Arre [AR-EE], Marine Restoration Director at Orange County Coastkeepers.
Claire: We call it a living shoreline project. So it makes our shorelines more resilient to things like erosion as well as sea level rise.
There's lots of different organisms that would do really well within a living shorelines approach. It would just depend on your particular area.
Oysters have the ability to create oyster beds, which are actually a pretty hard structure. You can imagine oyster shell is a place to deposit calcium and as they grow and build, they actually attach to each other and kind of create this natural formation. And it has quite a few. Positive impacts on the ecosystem. Oysters filter water. everything from sediments to pollution, extra nutrients. Help water quality. Um, and they really are kind of a natural wall barrier.
They maintain themselves unlike things like rip rack or bulkheads, , that humans really have to protect and they don't really create a lot of habitat. Oysters have the ability really create a living space
Ethan: To learn more about how Orange County Coastkeeper is using native oysters and eelgrass to bolster shorelines from the impacts of climate change and to get involved with similar projects in your area, visit climatebreak.org.