Once the team identified a working formula and process for building reef balls, the project became the province of the school’s environmental and underwater sciences pathway. The foundation also provided staff who could advise the students on such technical matters as the mix of concrete that would hold up well and balance chemically with the water in the harbor. ![]() Teacher (and now aquaculture coordinator) Pete Solomon and three students got the mold and supplies used to build two-foot reef balls donated through the foundation set up to advance the use of the technology. He hit upon the reef ball, a concrete module used in the creation of artificial reefs. Visel had been exploring underwater structures for shellfish restoration. The oyster restoration project began with an idea passed along by Tim Visel, then aquaculture coordinator. Oystering became a natural focus for student work in aquaculture and ecology, though the goal is less to produce oysters for harvest than to enhance and support the local ecosystem. The school was founded to provide high school students with a hands-on curriculum that would incorporate the harbor, marine science, and oceanography. The Sound School now occupies what was prime real estate in the heyday of oystering in New Haven. Connecticut led the Northeast in the production of farmed oysters until the mid-20 th century, when growth in the coastal population, overfishing, and pollution drastically limited the supply. Oystermen gathered the free-swimming oyster larvae, planted them on artificially created beds of oyster shells, and grew them to maturity. In the early 19 th century, oyster cultivation began in earnest. By the mid-18 th century, harvesting had depleted the oyster beds, and the General Assembly voted to allow shore towns to pass bylaws regulating the taking of shellfish in adjoining waters. When the first European settlers arrived in New Haven in the 1630s, they were introduced by Native American people to the oysters that grew plentifully in the harbor, as well as the Quinnipiac, Mill, and West rivers. They won the society’s Rankin Prize for Undergraduate Oral Presentation. ![]() This month, two students, Anja Nikkel and Brendan Connors, presented at a conference of the New England Estuarine Research Society on oyster density, size, and distribution, as well as biodiversity in the surrounding water. Students spawn oysters, set the larvae on concrete “reef balls,” place the reef balls in the harbor, and monitor the oysters’ growth and their impact on the ecology of the harbor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |