Oyster Planting Project
The Problem
Over 85 percent of the oyster reefs in Mobile Bay have been lost. Decades of shoreline development, dredging, pollution, and changing environmental conditions have taken a heavy toll on oyster populations. Without oysters, water stays murkier, pollution lingers longer, and the habitat young fish and crabs depend on disappears. The loss of oyster reefs does not just hurt the ecosystem. It affects fishing, swimming, and the way families and communities experience the bay every day.
The Solution
The Oyster Planting Project works to restore tidal creeks and shorelines across Coastal Alabama by creating new oyster reefs and rebuilding ones that have been lost. We plant oysters in intertidal areas near shore where they can grow, filter the water, and rebuild natural reef systems over time.
Intertidal oysters live in places where the tide comes in and out. They spend part of the day underwater and part of the day exposed to the air before the tide rises again. This natural cycle creates strong reefs along the shoreline, helping protect the coast, support marine life, and improve the health of nearby waters.
We do this work in partnership with industry, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations to ensure each project is built to last. Our goal is to plant 10 million oysters in the bay by 2030, creating nearly 200 oyster reefs. These reefs are monitored every year to track growth, survival, and the arrival of new oysters.
The impact adds up fast. A single female oyster can produce up to 5 million eggs each year. Together, these reefs could release as many as 25 trillion oyster larvae into the bay. Once established, they could filter up to 500 million gallons of water every day. That is more than 182 billion gallons of water filtered each year, helping keep the bay cleaner, healthier, and able to support the way of life that depends on it.