A thriving oyster ecosystem is a force to be reckoned with regarding water quality in our creeks, Rappahannock River, and Chesapeake Bay. When the area now known as Virginia was first discovered by Europeans, oysters were growing in overabundance. Stories and histories tell us that oyster reefs were so numerous that they hindered ships from entering the Rappahannock River without scraping their hulls on the reefs. Hundreds of years later after industrialization and commercialization, the oyster is considered a delicacy and is currently estimated at less than 1% of the population there was during the first expeditions up the Rappahannock.
Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR) has long recognized the importance of the oyster in our Rappahannock ecosystem. One full-grown oyster can filter upwards of 30 gallons of water per day. Imagine what entire reefs across the lower Rappahannock and its tributaries could do! A few years ago, FOR’s oyster programs looked very different. Oyster reef recycling and restoration projects were few and far between. We had a great vision of what the program could look like but could not make it a reality. Our amazing partnerships, including the coalitions of Restore Urbanna Creek and Clean Carters Creek, led the way towards a collaborative oyster reef restoration program built through FOR’s lower Rappahannock Office.
The first major accomplishment of our Oyster Restoration Program was expanding community engagement throughout the watershed. Through outreach and regular community education, we have been able to partner with over twenty participating businesses and community centers to recycle oyster shells for our restoration projects.
As our shell recycling ramped up, partnered with Tides Inn off of Carter’s Creek to implement a Spat on Shell Program. This program alone allows us to produce approximately 900,000 oysters annually! In addition to spat-on-shell, we collaborate with local oyster farms to grow hundreds of thousands of individual seed oysters to supplement our existing reefs. Seed oysters are larger and partially grown. Our partners have been able to grow them from small oysters to larger oysters that can be put on the reefs. This year, we had the pleasure of including the Rappahannock Tribe in this aspect of our oyster partnership. Friends of the Rappahannock and our oyster farming partners at Rogue Oysters assisted in the Tribe’s Return to the River by mentoring Tribe members in the process of growing oysters.
A major success in recent years has been our annual participation in the Urbanna Oyster Festival – a two-day attraction for nearly 50,000 oyster lovers. In 2023, Friends of the Rappahannock was the first organization to recycle all of the oyster shells from oyster vendors at the Festival. This was around 250 bushels of shell to be used for reef restoration – including projects in Urbanna Creek where the Festival is located. .lolAs part of the Urbanna Oyster Festival, we participate in Marine Education Day. This is an opportunity for over 200 4th and 7th graders to attend the day before the Festival to have outdoor hands-on learning experiences surrounding the eastern oyster. During this event, we were able to reach over 1000 students to talk about oyster restoration in the Rappahannock Watershed.
We are so pleased to announce that as of 2024, we have continued to hit incredible milestones including but not limited to, 2,085,667 TOTAL OYSTERS PLANTED! That’s a lot of oysters! We aim to grow and improve these programs going forward with the help of our amazing partners and volunteers. Make sure you check us out in 2025!
Written by Jen Sagan, Oyster Restoration Specialist (November 2024)
