Three acres of concrete once used as decking for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge will become home to 3 million baby oysters.
“Concrete and oysters go pretty good together,” said Martin Gary, a fisheries ecologist with the state Department of Natural Resources.
“In a perfect world, we would use natural oyster shell. But the population is so low, shell is just almost nonexistent.”
This reef will join several other concrete reefs in the Chesapeake, including thousands of tons of material from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge placed near Solomon’s Island.
Instead of tossing the concrete into a landfill or reusing it for another road project, officials made sure the concrete was cleaned, crushed and formed into a base to house millions of oysters and other aquatic life.
The concrete from the Bay Bridge has already been lowered into the water near Asquith Creek on the Severn River, and the tiny oysters will be placed today, Gary said.
The project is a partnership between several government and nonprofit groups. The DNR holds the permits for the site and will be monitoring its success.
The Maryland Transportation Authority, a new partner in the oyster reef efforts, contributed $75,000 for the project, and another $50,000 came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“It’s a home run for oysters, the Bay and for finding ways to accelerate oyster restoration,” Stephanie Reynolds, an oyster and fisheries scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said in a statement. The foundation is a major partner in the project.
This project will not be a repeat of the concrete reef placed in a part of the Magothy River, Gary said. That reef was placed in an area that was too shallow, and the material contained garbage that later washed up on the shore.
Allison Albert, program director for the Severn Riverkeeper, an advocacy group and partner on the project, said she was confident steps were taken to avoid a similar situation.
Albert described the Asquith Creek as “a dead creek,” because a large mass of underwater grasses at the mouth of the river has blocked the flow of water.
Oysters are natural water filters, she said, “So we are hoping that will do good for the creek.”
