5/22/2012 SEWER COMMISSION Minutes

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Page 3 of 4 The bay is one part of a large-scale, $6 million oyster-habitat restoration and rehabilitation project. Funded entirely by grant money from organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Restore America's Estuaries, the project encompasses 22 sites spanning 90 acres up and down the coast. The goal, Wilgis said, is to benefit the water environment as a whole by providing more places for the filter-feeding oysters to grow. "Oysters supply a lot of what we call 'ecosystem services,' "he said. "Oyster reefs provide fish habitat. Oysters also are an important fishery ... and they also can affect water quality. Key to ecosystem "Fish habitat, food, filtration, those are all important things oysters do." To select suitable sites for the project, federation biologists work with researchers from L NC-Wilmington, shellfish growers and harvesters, and Marine Fisheries officials. After choosing a specific location, researchers spray oyster shell into the water, either adding to existing reefs or creating new piles. Typically, spraying occurs in the spring, though reefs have also been built later in the year. "Oyster larvae are floating around in the spring, summer and fall, and they eventually sink down and attach to something -preferably another oyster shell," Wilgis said. "To build reefs here, you spread shell." Researchers check the new reefs several times per year,monitoring the oysters' growth and the population levels of different sea life along the oyster bed. That data is compared to samples taken from "reference reefs" - oyster beds that . existed before the restoration project began. To sample the oysters on one of the reefs in Dick's Bay, Wilgis donned a pair of blue rubber gloves and carefully pulled large chunks of oyster shell from the ground. The samples were placed on a sieve tray, where Wilgis quickly rinsed them with water, examined their size and noted any sea critters among the shells. 3/19/2012