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More than 100 educational institutions, 75 restaurants and many other organisations are now part of the Billion Oyster Project.
The project was started by Murray Fisher in 2003 on Governors Island. (Photo Credits: X)
Over 150 million larvae of oyster have been planted in the New York harbour over the last decade as part of The Billion Oyster Project, aimed at boosting the number of this marine species. The project was started by Murray Fisher in 2003 on Governors Island. He established the Harbour Public High School, which incorporates water into every subject. Fisher then invited an oyster specialist, Pete Malinowski, to take up a teaching job at his school. They began the experiment with a handful of kids in a basement room of Fort Jay.
According to a report by the BBC, Fisher and Malinowski filled a 30-gallon container with harbour water and planted nearly 30,000 larvae there. Their goal was to determine whether oysters could grow and survive in the polluted water.
“I was never a super successful student. But as any good farmer, I had all this complex biological understanding of marine life. So, the idea of using farming as a teaching tool was really exciting to me,” Malinowski said about his experience of working with Fisher.
With the help of his students, Malinowski later constructed a tiny aquaculture system on one of the piers that grew a few million oysters. What once started as a school project has now become one of the most ambitious initiatives in New York City. More than 100 educational institutions, 75 restaurants and many other organisations are now part of the Billion Oyster Project.
The initiative recently received some global attention. During the Climate Week in September, London Mayor Sadiq Kahn visited two oyster gabions in Brooklyn on a small speedboat up the Hudson River.
Besides clicking pictures with the iconic Statue of Liberty, Sadiq also enjoyed the boat ride. He even caught little crabs with his bare hands and tossed them back into the water. During his New York trip, Sadiq also evaluated the possibility of returning the oysters to the Thames, the BBC report claimed.
At least 6,000 years have passed since the eastern oyster first appeared in the Hudson River estuary. According to some biologists, half of the world’s oyster population once lived in the New York Harbor. Overfishing and pollution were the main causes of the oyster collapse, which began in the 1700s. An outbreak of cholera in 1849 and the 2012 Hurricane Sandy also had a huge impact.
