CEDAR ISLAND, N.C. — If you live in North Carolina, you know oysters are everything. Not only do they attract people who love seafood from all over the world, but they're also a crucial ecological habitat.
What You Need To Know
The creation of 500 acres of artificial reefs is bringing back the oyster population in Pamlico Sound
These oyster sanctuaries are made by dumping limestone and granite in the water
Biologists have built 15 sanctuaries in Pamlico Sound since 1990
Oysters help keep the water clean in the sound
Bennett Paradis is part of an environmental team building oyster sanctuaries off the North Carolina coast. The team is constructing its newest artificial reef at Cedar Island.
“What we're doing here is we're building oyster habitat,” Paradis said. “So we're putting down this hard substrate that the oysters can gravitate towards and grow on. And they'll eventually be happy adult oysters that are brooding stock for the rest of the natural populations in Pamlico Sound.”
Paradis has only been working with the Division of Marine Fisheries for a few months, but he's already learned a lot about oysters. He's very passionate about coastal ecosystems. He says they provide a lot of value both economically and recreationally.
“Oysters have the benefit of filtering the water for us,” Paradis said. “I think one adult oyster every day filters about 50 gallons of water.”
Paradis says this specific location is only part of a bigger plan to install 500 acres of artificial reef in Pamlico Sound. There have been 15 oyster sanctuaries developed since 1990.
Over the years natural oyster reefs have slowly disappeared due to hurricanes, development and uncontrolled harvest. These new structures are providing a more complex oyster environment to improve biodiversity.
Limestone and granite gets dumped onto the sludgy floor of the sound and given time, underneath the surface, new habitats begin to form.
“When you have more nooks and crannies, there's a lot more critters that will thrive and live in that habitat,” Paradis said.
Paradis is part of the team that scuba dives to the bottom of these reefs to monitor the oysters as they grow.
“When you've got hundreds of oysters per square meter and you amplify that by 500 acres,” Paradis said. “They're doing an incredible environmental service for us and for the rest of the habitat.”
The project has been very successful so far. The North Carolina Coastal Federation says these sanctuaries are home to about 20% of the oyster population in Pamlico Sound.
“They're not going to settle just on this site,” Paradis said. “They'll settle on multiple sites throughout Pamlico Sound that aren't just artificial sites, they're naturally occurring sites. So this kind of feeds that entire network.”
The Division of Marine Fisheries and the Coastal Federation say that they will continue to build these oyster sanctuaries as long as they have the funding. Construction crews will complete the artificial reef at Cedar Island in 2023. After that, work will begin on the next one.