After a second meeting with Peter Walsh, we can confirm the RoboPhantoms are now working with Seatuck on the oyster restoration project.  Spock will be implemented into Shorefront Park along with one of Seatuck's projects. Spock has also been confirmed that it works. Even with a bad batch of larvae, Spock still attracts multiple oysters.

Before SPOCK ever came to mind, we reached out to groups such as the Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island (CRESLI), the Marine Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, the Michael Murphy Navy Seal Museum, and the Long Island Maritime Museum. Some of them didn't make it back to us and others gave us information irrelevant or unhelpful to our research. Thankfully, we still had a few more contacts to reach out to, and they were able to help us. The RoboPhantoms met with Ethan Doutney, an oysterman, to start their research.  Ethan gave us many ideas to work off of, including the issue of getting rid of boring sponge (an infestation that kills oysters). We soon started to brainstorm methods of drying out boring sponges periodically. We then met with Seatuck, a non-profit, that really gave us the foundation we needed. We shared our idea about the boring sponge with Seatuck and they gave us some crucial feedback. We soon found that our first idea not feasible so we brainstormed with our team to create an oyster attractive rock. We wanted to create a concrete rock for the oysters to grow on, and then use the boring sponge to recycle the oyster shells, since the sponges liked to feed off the calcium carbonate.  

Our only problem was how we were going to remove the sponge so it didn't overgrow and kill the living oysters, instead of recycling the dead ones. Seatuck suggested we attach the rock somewhere with lots of fluctuating tide, so the sponge will dry off before it overpopulates. They told us about one of their current projects at Shorefront Park.  Seatuck was working with the Village of Patchogue to install a fish ladder, and were also working to restore the oysters. The only problem for us with Shorefront park is that the wall we planned to attach our rock to was bedrock. Bedrock is almost impossible to drill into, so we needed to find another way to attach our rock. After our meeting with Seatuck, we were planning on our attachment method. We completely ditched the sponge and decided to just stick with the rock. It was made entirely from concrete with oyster shells. This attracted the larvae to rock. The shape was a right triangle, so it fit in the corner of the wall. The first method we came up with involved inserting an upside down umbrella shaped structure into the ground to keep the rock from floating around. There were three major problems with this; it would be too heavy, we would need very specific material, and it violated the rules of the DEC. Our next method was to attach the rock using metal chains and wedges to existing rocks along Shorefront Park. This method was not feasible because it could be prone to erosion and blocked water from filtering through the living shoreline. Finally, we came up with SPOCK, a concrete substrate containing sea shells that would be painted onto rocks from Shorefront as a method of attracting oyster growth without affecting the ecosystem.

In order to make sure we made the most sustainable, strongest prototype, we changed the recipe of our mixture multiple times.

Trial 1 - In our first iteration, we used roughly 3 pounds of Quikrete mix and 20 ounces of water to create our base. We combined this with about 1 1/2 cups of crushed shells. This combination was a little bit too pasty and helped us to find that we needed to more precisely measure our ingredients and make the mix drier.

Trial 2 - In our second attempt, we got help from an industry professional, Steven Cirillo, in order to help us find a good ratio and be more accurate with our mixture. we mixed about 2 pounds of Quikrete mix and 12 ounces of water. This combination was perfectly thick while still making sure the shells were able to show through and stick to the rock. We increased the amount of shells to 2 cups, making sure they were equally crushed and divided. Finally we applied our paste to three rocks we collected from Shorefront Park.

After going through both trials, we determined Trial 2 of SPOCK was more accurate and viable for our experiments than Trial 1. This became our final version.

A little montage of what a team member does everyday when they visit the hatchery