08-04-06: Planting A New Habitat

Wilmington Star-News
Published: Aug 4, 2006
By Gareth McGrath, Staff Writer

Planting a new habitat

The prospect of working in muck during one of the hottest days of the year didn't stop nearly three dozen volunteers from getting their hands dirty Thursday at Airlie Gardens.

The group came together to help the N.C. Coastal Federation and Airlie reuse oyster shells as habitat in Bradley Creek.

Volunteers used bags of shells gathered earlier this summer, relaying them out into the creek to be placed end-to-end in the water.

Spaces were left every few bags to allow crabs, fish and other marine critters that rely on intertidal oyster reefs as vital nursery and juvenile habitat to slip behind the low-slung shell hash.

Nicole Mitchell, environmental education program coordinator for Airlie Gardens, said the more than 1,600 bags would create nearly 400 feet of reef habitat that would also help stabilize the gardens' shoreline along Bradley Creek and act as an educational tool for visiting students.

New oysters that latch onto the reefs also should help improve water quality because an oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day.

Bradley Creek is the most polluted tidal creek in New Hanover County, so Thursday's work doesn't mean the creek will reopen to shellfishing anytime soon.

But Ted Wilgis, a biologist educator with the Coastal Federation, said the oyster enhancement can only help stabilize and improve the creek's health.

"We don't just want to abandon it," he said, ticking off other water quality improvements planned for the watershed.

The reef work, part of a multiyear project coordinated by the Coastal Federation and funded through a $120,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, comes as North Carolina aggressively moves to address a decades-long decline in its oyster stocks.

Decimated by overfishing, declining water quality and disease, North Carolina has lost about 90 percent of its oyster habitat since 1900.

Recent initiatives include funding to study establishing oyster hatcheries at the state's three aquariums and moves to boost oyster shell recycling.

Gareth McGrath: 343-2384
gareth.mcgrath@starnewsonline.com