• Partners

– New York Harbor Foundation

– Cornell University

– Hudson River Foundation

New York City

Department of Environmental Protection

Oyster Research Project

Thurston Basin

Jamaica Bay Task Force

Meeting

October 29, 2015

Building on Past Efforts

2

Learning from Past Efforts

3

Gerrittsen Creek

5-year old from the 2010

Pilot Project.

Approximately 100 live

oysters remain.

Many of similar size.

4

Larvae Retention Model

5

Model Results

A total of 47,500 larvae were released from 19 reefs

Overall recruitment success was about 16% of total release

Thurston Basin

6

Project Overview

Temporary

Aquaculture

Floats and

Line

Subtidal

Reefs

• Project Siteo Head of Bayo Within the 200-Yard Exclusion Zone of JFK

airport

• Aquaculture Line

o 900 foot longline

o 300 12” floats

o Trays of oysters hanging from longline

• Oyster Settlement Reefs

o 4 reefs, each reef (10m x 50m)

o Subtidal (10-20 ft below MLW)

• Hurricane Sandy Resiliency Funding

from DOI ($1M with $375+ match from DEP)

7

Characterize Project Area

• Initial Site Surveys and

Mappingo Bottom Typeo Benthic Community

Analysiso Hydrodynamics (ADCP

deployed for 2 months)

• Timeline: Early spring 2016

8

Oyster Nursery Construction

• Oyster Aquaculture

Line

o 600 foot longline

o 200 12” floats, 3ft

spacing

o Trays of oysters

hanging from

longline

• Timeline: Late May

2016

9

Reef Construction

Reef Base Construction

o 500 yards of clean clam shell

o 4 barge loads

Timing: Early May 2016

o Deployed from barge over 4 days

Oyster Shell Veneer

o 20 yards of clean oyster shell

o Deployed from barge over 2

days:

o Testing of Crushed Porcelain as

a suitable substrate

10

11

Monitoring Oyster Settlement

• Settlement Reef Monitoring

o Diver Quadrat Sampling,

Timing: 2 days a month from July – November

o Oyster Tong Sampling

o Timing: 2 days in November 2016 and

November 2017

• Passive Settlement Bags

o 10 sites – 1 on each reef (4), 1 east of reefs, 5 west

of reefs

12

Questions?

Questions?