Help Save the Bay – Recycle Oysters in Herald Harbor

If you have gone to the Herald Harbor community beach recently, you may have noticed that there is something new; an oyster recycling bin!

As part of my 8th grade capstone project for St. Annes School of Annapolis, I researched the importance of oysters to the Chesapeake Bay and I worked with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) to set up our very own bin in Herald Harbor so our community can help save the bay.

When the bin is full enough, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will pick it up, grow baby oysters on the shells, then put the shells on an oyster reef. I chose to set this up because of all that the oysters do for us and our bay. Another reason is because of the oyster capability to filter up to 50 gallons of water in a day. This is important because 200 years ago, there were so many oysters in the bay that they could filter the whole entire bay in a week. Nowadays, with less than 10% of our original oyster levels, it would take more than a year.

Oysters are a necessary part of the bay, with more than 10,000 jobs related to harvesting them, so if you save your oyster shells after eating or finding them and put them in the new bin, it will benefit everybody, including you. Another thing you could do is take this fun test, Oysters, What are They Hiding? to see how much you really know about oysters. Adding oysters to the bin is very simple, all you have to do is rinse off anything left on the shells and then put them in the bin!