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During the 2025-2026 school year, we are conducting an experiment that brings together several of the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) that we work on in Natural Resources Management. This helps us to understand the entire cycle of oyster restoration -- from building reef balls to growing baby oysters to monitoring the water and to planting the mature organisms at restoration sites.
We have placed baby oysters (spat-on-shell) in two 500-gallon tanks to grow them throughout the school year for planting in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. For this experiment, we have established a "complex ecosystem" tank, which includes not only baby oysters but also many other kinds of marine life and algae in optimized water conditions. For comparison, we have create an "idealized water" tank, which includes only the oysters with optimized water and regular algae feedings, but no other organisms. We counted and measured the spat before the experiment began in October, and we will do so again in the spring.
Here's how our experiment fits the larger cycle of our oyster restoration efforts:
Building Reef Balls
Building Reef Balls
We help St. Mary's River Watershed Association to build concrete reef balls that give baby oysters a hard surface on which to grow, which allows this keystone species to reestablish itself in the Bay watershed and significantly improve water quality.
Water Quality Monitoring
Water Quality Monitoring
We are using our oyster tank experiment to learn to collect and analyze water quality data, and to help us determine the accuracy of our Bay Observation Box sensors. We are using several devices for comparison, including the GaiaXus Water Guardian in the girl's hand above. View our BOB data here and our comparison data here.
Planting Oysters
Planting Oysters
When Friends of St. Clements Bay prepares to plant the baby oysters grown on docks through the Marylanders Grow Oysters program, we help to count and measure them. Then we send them off on the boat for placement on the Breton Bay Oyster Sanctuary reef.
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