Community-based restoration of oyster reefs in southwest Florida-western Everglades watersheds

Southwest Florida has witnessed tremendous urbanization in recent years. To accommodate this growth in population, resource managers have been forced to develop and manage watersheds, thereby compromising the habitat of aquatic organisms and impacting estuarine ecosystems downstream. These estuaries provide critical feeding, spawning and nursery habitat for ecologically and economically important species of finfish and shellfish, including oysters (Crassostrea virginica).

Oysters not only represent an important fisheries species commonly found in estuaries of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S. but they are important ecologically. Individual oysters filter 4-34 liters of water per hour, removing phytoplankton, particulate organic carbon, sediments, pollutants, and microorganisms from the water column. This process results in greater light penetration immediately downstream thus promoting the growth of submerged aquatic vegetation. Although the oysters assimilate 70% of the organic matter filtered, the remainder is deposited on the bottom where it provides food for benthic organisms. This secondary production, combined with a complex, three-dimensional, reef structure serving as nesting habitat and/or refuge, attracts numerous species of invertebrates and fishes (e.g., blue crab, mud crabs, grass shrimps, penaeid shrimp, blennies, gobies, killifishes, skilletfish, toadfishes). Furthermore, many of these organisms serve as forage for important fisheries species, birds, and mammals. Oysters are not only an important fisheries species, but oyster reefs serve as essential fish habitat and their protection and restoration should therefore be a focus of resource managers. However, records from Southwest Florida suggest that oyster growth and distribution has decreased drastically since the 1960s. With support from the South Florida Water Management District and the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, we have already identified areas in the Caloosahatchee River and in San Carlos Bay that are conducive to the production of healthy oyster reefs (e.g., low contaminant loads, high spat recruitment, higher growth of juveniles, and low disease and predator incidence).

With funding from the South Florida Water Management District, Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, we are collaborating with the Lee County School District, Florida Sea Grant, the City of Cape Coral, and the citizens of SW Florida, in educating and involving the general public as well as high school and undergraduate students in a community-based restoration of oyster reefs in the lower Charlotte Harbor estuary, and estuaries of the Ten Thousand Islands in the Western Everglades. In concert with the university personnel, community volunteers create, maintain, restore and enhance oyster-shell reefs in order to establish healthy living-oyster reefs. The project will also assess the suitability of other locations within the lower Charlotte Harbor estuary for the enhancement of existing oyster bars or for the restoration of historic oyster bars. To date, oyster reefs have been created in the Caloosahatchee River / lower San Carlos Bay, Estero Bay (Lee County), and Henderson Creek (Collier County). Information related to the restoration project can be found at:

http://www.floridaenvironment.com/programs/fe30602.htm
http://www.bonitanews.com/03/05/bonita/d916684a.htm
http://www.news-press.com/news/local_state/030511oysters.html

Aswani Volety
Coastal Watershed Institute
Florida Gulf Coast University
10501 FGCU Blvd South
Fort Myers, FL 33965

Phone: 239-590-7216

E-mail: avolety@fgcu.edu