1 / 13

The big oyster debacle

The big oyster debacle. NJ DEP vs. NJ BAYKEEPER. The oyster.

dagmar
Download Presentation

The big oyster debacle

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The big oyster debacle NJ DEP vs. NJ BAYKEEPER

  2. The oyster • Eastern oysters (crassostrea virginica) are a bivalve mollusks. They can be up to 10 inches long and vary in appearance and shape. The bottom shell binds to a hard substrate, i.e. rock broken shell, other oysters. Although live oyster numbers are increasing, reefs which are important both commercially and ecologically have yet to reappear (Stanne 51).

  3. FILTER FEEDERS: oysters can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day! This improves the quality of water, making it cleaner, cleaner, allowing more sunlight to shine through to other ecosystems such as sea grass. • REEF: oysters are the only bivalves that build a vertical structure into the water column Keystone species Oysters have a disproportionate affect on their environment for they influence a whole range of other organisms. They play a key role in promoting biodiversity.

  4. Oyster reefs • Oyster reefs provide habitat for commercially and recreationally important fish(i.e. flounder and striped bass) as well as other organisms, like crabs, snails, shrimp and other bivalves.

  5. Until 1839, there was an estimated 350 square miles of oyster beds in New York Harbor and upriver as far as Croton, yielding more than a million and a half bushels of oysters. As late as 1907, 300 million oysters were harvested from waters around New York City. However, soon after that, several complaints about foul taste and outbreaks of typhoid fever were linked to the contaminated shellfish, ending their harvest. Dredging, filing, and silting further destroyed the remaining beds. In 1955, hurricane rainfall caused a lengthy discharge of freshwater over the upriver beds, killing off the oysters (Stanne 58). history

  6. NY/NJ BAYKEEPER utilized a two-prong strategy in hopes of achieving oyster restoration: oyster gardening and remote setting NY/NJ BAYKEEPER Oyster restoration projects

  7. Oyster restoration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g1eZkyy3E4

  8. NJ Department of environmental protection (10/P77) TRENTON - The NY/NJ Baykeeper today complied with the state’s ban on research-related gardening of commercially viable oysters in contaminated waters by removing its oysters from New York Harbor. DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said that action helps meet two key goals: safeguarding public health and protecting the health and viability of the State’s $790 million-a-year shellfish industry. “There is a lot at stake here,’’ said Commissioner Martin. “We have an obligation to safeguard the public health and ensure that no contaminated oysters or clams get into the public food supply. We also don’t want to jeopardize an entire, nationally recognized industry that has great economic value to this state by allowing the Baykeeper to continue operating its research project with commercial oysters in tainted waters.’’ “If someone were to get sick from eating shellfish from contaminated waters, there’s a risk people might stop buying or eating New Jersey grown shellfish.’’ The shellfish industry includes many small businesses that employ many hundreds of state residents, providing incomes for thousands of people and creating needed tax revenues for New Jersey, the Commissioner said. While the Department offered an alternative location for the Baykeeper’s oyster research project _ which could have provided a temporary home for the group’s valuable research effort _ the Baykeeper declined that offer.

  9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACgZ8n657LY Star Ledger documents the removal of oysters

  10. Oyster removal

  11. maybe?

  12. Nj shellfish industry From the Garden State… it’s a shore thing! Use of the logo helps to increase visibility and consumer awareness of the quality and wholesomeness of products grown and harvested in New Jersey.

  13. In 2006, Barnegat Light landed $25.5 million of fish primarily sea scallops and monkfish. • Almost 100 different species of finfish and shellfish were landed. • There are six major commercial fishing ports: Atlantic City, Barnegat Light, Belford, Cape May, Point Pleasant and Port Norris. • It is estimated that for every one dollar of landed value, six dollars are generated in the overall economy bringing the value of the wild harvest to $876 million. That’s almost $1 BILLION. • Atlantic City brought in 24.2 million pounds of ocean quahogs and surf clams valued at $36.8 million.
 • New Jersey is one of the leading suppliers of surf clams, Atlantic mackerel and ocean quahogs to both the nation and the world. NJ facts

More Related