Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 30 July 2019
Oyster seeding: A 'tangible, physical' way to help the water

OCEAN GATE, N.J. (AP) — ty whelk shells in Ocean
Restoring oyster beds and Gate, New Jersey, in 2015,
helping keep the water the Littoral Society has
clean isn't just for scientists placed 6.3 million oysters
and environmental groups on those shells, estimating
anymore. that about 207,000 remain
Students, younger children alive and growing.
and those with no particu- At least 70 million more
lar scientific background could be planted in the
like the idea that some- next few years, said Capt.
thing they do this morning Al Modjeski, an official with
can be helping the earth the Littoral Society.
by this afternoon. Once they reach the wa-
Kenna Allocco, 12, of ter, the oysters have about
Beachwood, New Jersey, a 10 percent survival rate,
recently helped remove scientists say.
bags of whelk shells with Oyster restoration projects
baby oysters attached to are underway or have re-
them from a bubbling tank cently been completed in
in preparation for their jour- San Francisco Bay; Puget
ney to a Barnegat Bay reef, Sound near Seattle; in
in between asking a dozen coastal salt ponds in Rhode
or so incisive questions of Island and the state's Nar-
program leaders. ragansett Bay; in the Caro-
"I'm interested in how all linas; in Florida and the oth-
the animal species inter- er Gulf Coast states; in New
act with each other, and In this July 25, 2019 photo, Christine Thompson, an assistant professor at Stockton University, looks Hampshire; and particu-
through bags of young oysters growing on whelk shells as part of an oyster restoration program
in biodiversity," she said. being done by the American Littoral Society in Ocean Gate, N.J. larly in Chesapeake Bay
"We're learning about this Associated Press in Maryland and Virginia,
in school. I made a speech where some of the nation's
about the problem of plas- ing projects say one of their The Littoral Society was one the baby oysters attach biggest oyster restoration
tic pollution in the ocean, best benefits is providing of two New Jersey environ- themselves to the rows of programs have been un-
and I scared my entire an immediate, easy way mental groups to carry out concrete castles the group derway for years.
class. None of them uses for people to get involved oyster seeding projects in dumped a few hundred Since launching in 2014, an
plastic straws anymore." and help the environment. the past two weeks. feet from shore. As the effort to restore oysters in
The efforts are part of a "It's a very real, tangible, The New York/New Jersey shells grow, they expand New York Harbor called the
worldwide effort by scien- physical thing you can do Baykeeper group is add- the mass and shape of Billion Oyster Project has
tists and volunteer environ- and see that it is helpful to ing to an artificial reef it has the reef, providing "speed planted over 28 million oys-
mentalists to dump millions the environment," said Zack built for oysters along the bumps against wave ac- ters, with the goal of reach-
of baby oysters into wa- Royle, a habitat restoration shoreline of the Earle Naval tion during storms," she said. ing a billion by 2035.
terways where they once coordinator with the Ameri- Weapons Station in Middle- A Baykeeper project in mid- In Europe, oyster restoration
thrived before overharvest- can Littoral Society, a New town, where the shoreline July placed a million young projects are being done in
ing and pollution virtually Jersey coastal environmen- was ripped up by Super- oysters near the heavily England, Scotland, Ireland,
wiped out the shellfish. tal group. "You place the storm Sandy in 2012. Both guarded Navy pier. Over France, the Netherlands,
In addition to helping im- seed oysters in the tank, have been cultivating and the past 10 years, they've Germany and Sweden.
prove water quality and you watch them grow growing oysters in New Jer- set out 4 million of them in The work usually involves
stabilize shorelines against and you put them into ac- sey bays for years. various spots. scientific groups setting up
strong storms, many people tion when you dump them Meredith Comi, restoration Since it built the base of tanks in which to cultivate
involved in the oyster seed- overboard." director for Baykeeper, said an oyster reef using emp- baby oysters. q

Hawaii scientists denied access to existing observatories

HONOLULU (AP) — Protests on the dormant Mauna The Mauna Kea Observa- the summit has resulted in maintenance.
against construction of a Kea volcano have been tories house 13 telescopes the potential loss of a year's "The technicians who take
giant telescope have halt- denied access by dem- that have led to astronomi- worth of discoveries, said care of the equipment on
ed work at existing obser- onstrators opposed to the cal breakthroughs for more Simons. The demonstra- a daily basis really care for
vatories on the Big Island, a Thirty Meter Telescope, Ha- than 40 years, including tions have also affected those instruments like their
report said. waii News Now reported the first photo of a black the scientists' interactions babies," said Rich Matsuda
Workers at other facilities Sunday. hole and the discovery of with family and community from the W.M. Keck Obser-
the first interstellar object in members. "They have these vatory. "And so the inability
space. great bonds within their to access the equipment,
"All we're looking to do is family and their friends, and take care of it on a daily
to go up the road and re- now there's a big rift there," basis, is frustrating, disap-
sume what we've been do- said Jessica Dempsey from pointing and difficult for
ing for 50 years," said scien- the East Asian Observatory them." Demonstrators op-
tist Doug Simons from the and the James Clerk Max- pose construction of the
Canada-France-Hawaii well Telescope. Thirty Meter Telescope they
Telescope. The lack of access has tak- say could further damage
The two-week closure of en a toll on the telescopes, land considered sacred by
the access road leading to which need continuous some Native Hawaiians.q