Settlement Funds from Oil Spill to Help Restore Florida Oyster Reefs
To comply with FTC regulations, all links could lead to commissions paid to the publisher. Please see Advertising Disclosure in sidebar.

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Storm damage, pollution and other factors – some related to climate change – are reducing the oyster population. But settlement funds from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill are now available to restore oyster reefs in the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts estimate the Gulf lost between four and eight billion oysters to the massive oil spill and saw a loss of reproduction in the ensuing years.
However, research scientist Ryan Gandy with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission said oysters are not just living creatures, they’re also habitat. So bringing them back also brings back an entire ecosystem.
“By focusing up in the Suwannee Sound area,” said Gandy, “we’re looking at potential building back of some of the bars or some of the oysters in the area providing resiliency to those oysters.”
FREE DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION: GET ONLY 'FEATURED' STORIES BY EMAIL
Big Tech is using a content filtering system for online censorship. Watch our short video about NewsGuard to learn how they control the narrative for the Lamestream Media and help keep you in the dark. NewsGuard works with Big-Tech to make it harder for you to find certain content they feel is 'missing context' or stories their editors deem "not in your best interest" - regardless of whether they are true and/or factually accurate. They also work with payment processors and ad-networks to cut off revenue streams to publications they rate poorly by their same bias standards. This should be criminal in America. You can bypass this third-world nonsense by signing up for featured stories by email and get the good stuff delivered right to your inbox.
The oyster work is part of a nearly $100 million payout to also help restore sea turtles, marine mammals and birds. This is the first in a series of oil-spill recovery plans for the Gulf region.
Chad Hanson, science officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts, said most people appreciate oysters on the half shell at their local seafood restaurant, but don’t realize the small mollusks filter up to 50 gallons of water a day – improving water quality by removing pollutants, sediment and other particles.
“So, an oyster creates a reef,” said Hanson. “It’s almost like a coral reef in its ecological importance. Oysters are habitat engineers, and that reef creates habitat and that habitat has a bunch of ecosystem services.”
However, Hanson said the sad news is, oysters have been in massive decline over the past couple decades. Around 80 to 90 percent of oyster reefs have been lost worldwide.
But he said he hopes the almost $40 million federal and state officials have earmarked for new or improved reefs to help the shellfish reproduce and thrive, will help turn their ecosystems around.
Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.