NEWS

Barnegat Bay oysters? Reef could make it happen

Dan Radel
@DanielRadelAPP
Workers from the Atlantic Dock and Bulkhead Co. load a barge with whelk shells that will be dumped off Good Luck Point into Barnegat Bay.

BERKELEY – Whelk shells were introduced to Barnegat Bay Thursday with hopes they will provide a resilient substrate for a natural oyster reef to develop.

"It's a Jersey tough shell. It's something we want to put out on the reef site because it has the ability to interlock and provide habitat for oysters, but also for fish, and crabs and other invertebrates," said Capt. Alek Modjeski.

He said the shells have a lot of rugosity — a measure of the amount of available habitat available for colonization by benthic organisms. Oyster begin in a free-swimming larval stage that needs to attach to a hard substrate, forming an oyster spat.

Modjeski is the habitat restoration director for the American Littoral Society, the lead group in a collaborative effort of local, state and federal partners who are attempting to restore a long lost ecosystem to the bay.

"There used to be an abundance of oysters here centuries ago — they've pretty much become extinct. We're trying to re-establish it," said Bill McGrath, chairman of Berkeley Township's Waterway Advisory Commission.

The shape of the reef is rectangular and is about 300 yards from Good Luck Point in the Bayville section of the township. 120 cubic yards of whelk shell were imported from Delaware Bay and transported by barge to the location where they were shoveled overboard.

The spot is a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection existing shellfish restoration site. A previous oyster reef was begun there in 2008, but was wiped out by superstorm Sandy in 2012. That reef used clam shell fragments.

"We were able to find some remnants of those, most of them, for the most part are sunk into the bottom," said Capt. Jim Nickels, a marine scientist at Monmouth University's Urban Coast Institute.

Nickels surveyed the bottom with a side-scan sonar for material and used a remote operating vehicle to map the site prior to placement of the shells. The spot he said is flat bottom and in shallow 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet of water.

The area was historically known to be one of the most prolific and extensive oyster beds in the region, covering an area of 12,000 acres.

According to some local Barnegat baymen, in the late 19th and 20th centuries visitors traveling from points north were known to jump from the train to pick oysters directly off the reef and bring them to their summer homes to cook for dinner.

Dan Radel: 732-643-4072; dradel@app.com

QUICK FACT

The project was funded by grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Restore America's Estuaries