![]() Only they would have to go condo hunting again. The critters also would be returned to the river. “The oyster toads loved curling up in the whelk shells,” she said. The crabs are small, but their claws are mighty, and they use them to crush the shells.Īlso among the tenants in the oyster cages were tiny oyster crabs, less than an inch long that are shopping for a permanent home inside a living oyster or other shellfish.īlue Crabs showed up too, Helen said, along with some small unidentified fish and several small oyster toads. Mud crabs like to eat young oysters, among other young shellfish. If the oysters had their say, there might be rental restrictions on these little troublemakers. Several tough little mud crabs were oyster condo renters too. The blenny would have been attracted to the privacy of one of the shells in the cage where it would most likely lay its eggs. A cute little fish, the blenny has two feathery horns on its head and looked like it was walking around on the aquarium bottom with its two front fins. The shells are then returned to a reef in the river where the baby oysters can grow up.Īnd volunteers carefully put the other critters who had their lease so rudely terminated into a separate aquarium.Ī striped blenny that grows no bigger than four inches was an early arrival. LRNow volunteers and volunteers from the City’s Environmental Studies and Legal Studies programs and the Business Academy then took over to count and record the number of spat they found on the shells. They left with a fresh cage of shells for this year’s spat survey. Volunteers turned in their cages encrusted after a year in the water with seaweed and shells and filled with critters. Where the most larvae settle is an indication of the river’s health and where new oyster reefs might be productive. Helen, who oversees this Spat Collection Program, said the 10-year-old study is designed to assess the distribution of thses baby oyster larvae throughout the river each year. ![]() Other years, cages, have been filled with oyster shells or concrete to test which home, or substrate, oyster babies, prefer to land on.Īfter male oyster sperm and female eggs meet by happenstance in the water, baby oysters are born as free-floating larva and must settle and attach to a hard surface nearby to grow up. This year the small cages were furnished with discarded whelk shells, which seemed to attract spat renters, said Helen Kuhns, LRNow’s assistant director. Judging from the condos, brought into LRNow this week by volunteers who cared for them over the last year, there was no lack of tenants ranging from oyster spat to various fish and crabs. The condos are metal cages filled with comfy empty shells and rent quickly to a mix of residents, who are looking for an abode near food sources and other amenities. Though LRNow’s oyster condos are designed for baby oysters, called “spat”, spat aren’t the only renters who love these homes. “These oysters will help create protected reefs that bring back crucial habitat in local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay.The oyster condo real estate market is hot in the Lynnhaven River these days. “You are helping restore an iconic species,” she says. Returning gardeners can turn in their full-grown oysters and receive new spat during “round-ups,” which the CBF will hold on the same day as scheduled seminars.ĬBF’s Virginia Oyster Restoration Outreach Coordinator Kelly Davis says that growing oysters, which filter water and provide much needed habitat for other species, is quite the experience. The Foundation then places the bivalves on a Virginia sanctuary reef near their “hometown,” so to speak. After a year, gardeners return the oysters to CBF. Oysters are grown in cages suspended in the water from a residential dock or marina. Attendees aren’t obligated to move forward as gardeners and only pay if they want to participate in the program. Those who attend a workshop and are ready to garden will be given baby oysters on recycled shells (called “spat-on-shell”) and two cages for a fee to offset program costs. Seminars teach prospective gardeners how to care for baby oysters (spat) as they grow into adults over the course of a year. In June, CBF will hold oyster gardening seminars throughout Virginia in Hampton Roads, on the Eastern Shore, on the Middle Peninsula, and on the Northern Neck. The Chesapeake Oyster Alliance is hoping to boost the Bay’s oyster population by 10 billion by 2025, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) wants you to lend a hand-and a dock-in the effort.Īdult oysters fresh out of the gardening cage.
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