Oyster gardening can be done in Destin harbor and area docks
Alison McDowell of the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance talks about oyster gardening in the bay and in Destin harbor
The Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance (CBA) runs an oyster gardening program to improve water quality and create habitats in the Choctawhatchee Bay.Oyster gardens consist of strings of recycled oyster shells hung from docks, attracting oyster larvae which attach and grow.The grown oysters are not for consumption but are relocated to bolster existing oyster reefs and promote further growth.Oyster gardening provides an opportunity for community members to actively participate in bay restoration efforts.
When you hear the word “garden,” beautiful colored flowers, or even rows of corn or peas may come to mind — but not oysters.
However, the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance, which is all about supporting and protecting the natural resources in the area such as the bay, is doing oyster gardening.
“We are creating gardens for people to have at their docks to tend, and grow oysters,” said Alison McDowell, director of the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance.
The oysters are not for eating.
“It’s not for harvesting at all. These are not eating oysters. We are raising them for eco-system services, which are water filtration and habitat,” McDowell said.
The oysters from the gardens are taken once a year, “to kind of kick start oyster growth on some of the constructive oyster reefs” in the area, McDowell said.
What is an oyster garden?
The CBA collects oyster shells from local restaurants and then puts the shells outside to clean and dry out in the sun.
“After it’s been out there for about six months, we can use it to create the oyster gardens,” McDowell said.
They take about five shells, drill a hole through them and string them together to form a vertical garden that can be hung from docks along the bay or Destin harbor.
McDowell said the original oyster gardens were done in cages that looked like crab traps.
“We would put clean oyster shells in them and people would hang them from their docks and the oyster larvae would settle on it and start to grow,” she said.
CBA moved away from the cage method because they were getting very heavy and hard for people to pick them up to clean them periodically.
So, they moved to the vertical oyster garden on a rope.
“The oyster larva which is floating around will settle on these and start to grow and ends up creating a large oyster garden once they settle and start to grow,” McDowell said.
“One oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. These can be very effective to filter water and create habitat for other critters,” McDowell said.
Why grow an oyster garden?
“It’s a way for people to participate and do something to give back and help the bay,” McDowell said.
“They are giving back because these oysters are creating habitat, and they help to filter water. It’s an important building block of our bay … oysters are,” she said.
At the end of the year, the gardens are collected on “move your mollusk day” and the gardens are taken to one of the oyster reef breakwaters created by CBA.
“We settle the oyster gardens there, to jump start the oyster growth,” McDowell said.
Not only does one oyster filter 50 gallons of water per day, but oyster reefs protect shorelines from erosion and storm surge, said John Stephens of Luther’s Pontoons in Destin.
“In 2020 when Covid started, my wife, Ali and I thought the oyster gardening would be a good science project for our temporary home school,” Stephens said.
Today Stephens has five vertical oyster gardens hanging from his docks along Destin harbor and one from his dock behind his home.
How long does it take to see growth on an oyster garden?
“Not long at all. If the water is warm and the oysters are spawning, then it doesn’t take long at all,” McDowell said.
McDowell, Stephens and others were out taking water samples in Destin harbor and the bay on Aug. 20, and the water temperature was in the mid-80s.
“We have a pretty good stock of oysters in Choctawhatchee Bay. Oysters just need a concentrated place to settle,” she said.
But for the garden to grow, there must be some oysters in the area, she said, noting Destin harbor is a great place.
McDowell said you could see tiny dots, which is the spat or oyster larvae, within a week. And then the oysters begin to grow.
How big do the gardens get?
After about four months of growth, Stephens’ vertical oyster gardens had oysters of all different sizes on them, when checked on Aug. 20.
“There’s a lot of oyster presence there,” McDowell said, of the dock area at Luther’s Pontoons.
One of Stephens gardens was about a foot and a half in diameter.
When is the best time to start an oyster garden?
“We are getting toward the end of the season,” McDowell said, noting September will probably be the cutoff.
“Once the water cools off, we’ll wait to put out new one’s next spring,” she said.
How can you participate?
If you’d like to participate in the program, contact Tucker Reynolds at the CBA reynol59@nwfsc.edu.
Reynolds heads up the gardening program.
“He can get you your oyster garden, and you can have more than one, depending on how many you want to tend,” McDowell said.
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