Become a Baykeeper
Bring Back Alabama’s Oysters
Oysters have fed our families, supported working waterfronts, created habitat for fish, protected shorelines, and brought Coastal Alabama together for generations. But most of the oyster reefs that once filled our waters are gone.
Bringing them back will take harvesters, farmers, scientists, volunteers, businesses, public leaders, and people like you working toward the same future.
Become a Baykeeper and take your place in bringing them back.
Growing up down here meant long days on the water. Swimming in the Bay. Fishing with family. Running boats through the delta. Eating fresh Gulf seafood around the table.
These waters shaped our communities, our traditions, and our way of life. And ordinary folks deserve a voice in what happens to the place they call home. Because the bygone days of clean water should not be a story we tell our kids.
Oysters Bring Us Together
A sack of oysters shared around a table. An oyster boat tonging before sunrise. An angler casting over a reef. A family recipe handed down to another generation.
Oysters are more than a part of Coastal Alabama’s ecosystem. They are part of who we are. For thousands of years, people have harvested oysters from these waters, and healthy reefs have supported seafood businesses, fishing, restaurants, family traditions, and entire coastal communities.
Today, much of that habitat is gone. We have the opportunity to bring it back.
These are your waters. This is your culture. You have a place in restoring both.
Bring Back the Bay’s Oysters
Restore the Reef. Revive our Waters.
An oyster reef is never just an oyster reef.
It is habitat for fish, shrimp, and crabs. It protects shorelines, filters water, supports oyster farmers and harvesters, strengthens local seafood businesses, and creates the foundation for more life in our waters.
That is why Baykeeper is working across the whole oyster system. Our 2026 goal is to plant 500,000 oysters for restoration, while our partners are working toward producing 1 million spat on shell for future reefs. But successful restoration is about more than the number of oysters planted. They also need the right places to grow. Baykeeper is working across 28 reef beds in Coastal Alabama, creating more opportunities for oysters to establish in locations selected for the conditions they need to survive.
We are also bringing farmers and harvesters into the work, expanding restoration locations, and building the partnerships needed for oyster restoration to succeed over the long term.
This is not one reef or one project. It is a long-term effort to bring oysters back at the scale Coastal Alabama deserves.
It Takes a Us All to Bring Them Back
The work is already happening across Coastal Alabama.
Harvesters like Michael and Kerry Williams are sharing years of knowledge about the waters where oysters have lived. Bama Bay Oyster Co. is working with Baykeeper to produce young oysters for restoration. Volunteers and partners like Mossy Oak are bagging and planting shell. Oyster Keepers are raising oysters beneath local piers. Scientists, businesses, schools, agencies, and community members are contributing their piece.
Across 28 reef beds, those efforts are coming together to give oysters more places to grow and build living habitat.
And Baykeepers like you make the entire effort stronger.
Take Your Place in the Work
People across Coastal Alabama are becoming Baykeepers and investing in the future of our oysters and our waters.
Make your gift and add your name to the community bringing them back.
Add Your Pin to the Map
October 25th
4 to 7 p.m.
Grand Hotel
Members Only Oyster Jamboree
Oysters have brought this coast together for generations: around a table. And that's exactly where our Fall Member Drive ends.
Join Baykeeper at the Oyster Jamboree to celebrate the food, culture, people, and restoration work connected to Coastal Alabama’s oysters.
Bring Back Alabama’s Oysters
For a Better Future
The generations before us inherited waters filled with oyster reefs. Those reefs fed families, supported livelihoods, created fishing grounds, protected shorelines, and became part of the culture of this coast.
Much of that inheritance is gone.
But we have a choice about what we leave behind for future generations.
Your membership funds the restoration, research, partnerships, volunteer work, and infrastructure required to bring oysters back.
These are your waters. Take your place in restoring it.