NOAA

NOAA and our partners are working to restore oyster reef habitat in the Chesapeake Bay because oysters are an important part of the ecosystem. They grow in reefs that provide habitat for a number of Bay species. Oysters are filter feeders, so they clean the water as they eat. Oysters support not only the ecosystem, but also the economy. Areas with healthy oyster reefs are great for commercial and recreational fishing.

Amy Hauer

The Baltimore Oyster Partnership, a collaboration between the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), is working to grow 5 million oysters in the Baltimore Harbor by 2030.The Partnership aims to restore the ecosystem of the Harbor and the greater Chesapeake Bay by restoring depleted oyster populations. The project engages volunteers’ assistance in the installation and maintenance of 16 oyster gardens across the Baltimore Harbor. The gardens house over 1,000 cages of newly grown oyster larvae that are taken to a no-harvest sanctuary reef in the Patapsaco River.

Christopher Walsh

The East Hampton Town Trustees heard and approved a request by South Fork Sea Farmers, a nonprofit educational arm of the town’s shellfish hatchery and its community oyster garden program, to implement a program aiming to establish eelgrass meadows in Accabonac Harbor.

Dr. Marina Richardson

New research led by Griffith University is the first to document multiple tropical oyster reefs across tropical Australia. Oyster reefs are considered the “kidneys of the sea” and play a vital role in coastal health, but have declined by more than 99% in southern and south-eastern Australia and are considered to be functionally extinct.

Christopher Walsh

The World War II-era theme of “Keep Calm and Carry On” seemed incongruous with the barrage of dire environmental statistics, but the 2025 State of the Bays report on Long Island’s waterways, delivered by Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences on April 2 at the university’s Southampton campus, did include some encouraging, albeit smaller scale, developments with respect to mitigation.

Rob Hutchins

Because of Them We Can

John Wallace

James Lane Post

Jenny Noble