On September 30, 2023, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (ESNERR) staff, research partners (California Sea Grant and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories), and a group of community volunteers, joined together to outplant more than 80,000 baby oysters on the tidal mudflats of Hester Marsh at ESNERR. Together they are working to bring back the native Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida) at Elkhorn Slough, where populations are functionally extinct. Oysters increase estuarine biodiversity, improve water quality through filtering, stabilize the shoreline, sequester carbon, and provide habitat for other creatures.
ESNERR staff and partners are using conservation aquaculture to raise new generations that will thrive in the slough. Baby oysters are raised at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories’ Aquaculture Facility. These baby oysters grow on hard surfaces (i.e., clamshells), which are then counted, measured, and attached to wooden stakes, before being placed out in the mudflats of ESNERR.
As of July 2023, there were less than 1000 oysters in the estuary that originated from reproduction in the wild, and about 10,000 oysters raised (from local broodstock) at an aquaculture facility. ESNERR staff is working towards achieving a goal of one million adult oysters at ESNERR.
For more information, see:
CBS Bay Area TV news video (Oct 18, 2023)
ESNERR: Native Oyster Research at Elkhorn Slough
Figure: Baby oysters growing on a tagged clamshell, ready for outplanting in Elkhorn Slough. Credit: ESNERR.