Happy as an Oyster

Yesterday started with a very early 4:00 am wake up call in Charleston, South Carolina. Joy Brown –Marine ecologist and oyster specialist extraordinaire– would soon be arriving to pick me up at my hotel, which was on the way to the landing in nearby McClellanville. Although bedraggled and barely functional at that hour, I was really glad to be going out to the coastal marshes to once again document the progress of The Nature Conservancy's oyster habitat restoration project. We were blessed with good weather and the great company of U.S. House of Representatives Member Anne Peterson-Hutto and local fisherman Capt. Jim Yergin who were both very tolerant of my request for "Just one more photo, please..click...click...click...this time I really mean it....click...click!"

Here are some highlights of the morning. For background on this story, visit this earlier post.
A beautiful sunrise over the marshes as Capt. Jim guides us to the installation site.
First light revealed the new oysters that had colonized the oyster castles.
The oysters quickly colonized the man-made structures.
Local fisherman like Jim Yergin need healthy marine ecosystems to keep fish populations strong.
U.S. House of Representatives Member Anne Peterson-Hutto joined us on our trip to learn more about how the project works.
Joy demonstrates how the project is mapped via GPS for Representative Peterson-Hutto.
Joy Brown, proud defender of Oysters everywhere!

Documenting Marine Restoration

In early March I will begin working with The Nature Conservancy to document their marine restoration efforts along the South Carolina Coast. One of the primary goals of this project will be to restore oyster reefs and provide habitat for the 130 species which depend on the reefs for survival. This effort, which is being led by The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina's marine restoration specialist Joy Brown, is planned through 2011.

The purpose of my initial trip will be to make aerial images of the regions from Sewee Bay through Bulls Bay and up into the Santee River Delta. These images will be used to tell the story of the project and garner support from potential donors and the conservation community. However, as the project progresses, I will also be photographing volunteer efforts, those who harvest oysters and, of course, the oysters themselves. Additionally, I will work to photograph many of species that depend on these specialized eco-systems.

We only have one species of oyster here on the South Carolina coast, the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica). Its numbers have been severely declining since the early colonial period and according to this source, some areas have retained only around one percent of their original populations today. Part of the decline has been due to detrimental harvesting practices where sediment (or shells) was not deposited back into reef; allowing it to deplete over time. This Nature Conservancy project will hopefully be a very positive step in the right direction towards restoring our oyster reefs here in South Carolina.

I look forward to sharing my images from the project with you all over the next few years. It should yield some very interesting results and I feel very fortunate to contribute this conservation effort in my own small way.

Clay