Giving Tuesday & Reseeding Coastal Oyster Reefs

Today, we made the first annual donations to the Massachusetts Oyster Project and the Billion Oyster Project in what we hope will be a long standing tradition of supporting local oyster organizations, reseeding coastal oyster reefs, and cleaning up local waterways for future generations.

The Massachusetts Oyster Project is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to restoration, shell recycling, education, and advocacy surrounding these native water-cleansing shellfish.

Spat is grown in MOP upwellers until mature enough to be released into local estuaries.

The organization operates upwellers Gloucester, Marblehead, Hyannis, and Nantucket. All of which provide a protected area to grow oyster spat (or larvae) to mature sizes before being released and reseeded in prearranged local areas.

A volunteer from the Massachusetts Oyster Project reseeds a reef in Ipswich, MA.

The program has been able to release over 400,000 mature oysters in the past 3 years filtering up to 20,000,000 gallons of seawater per day and fostering biodiversity for other species of early-stage sea life that use oyster reefs as their main habitats.

Billion Oyster Project was founded in 2014 with the goal of restoring native oyster reefs in the harbor of New York City. With a strong focus on education, the organization serves as the driving force behind thousands of volunteers, students, and restaurant partners.

A Billion Oyster Project vehicle collects recycled oyster shells.

With 25,000 restaurants in NYC, it’s easy to imagine how many oyster shells end up in landfills every year. In an effort to reduce waste and provide structure on which reseeded oysters can grow, BOP has lead the charge to collect over 8,000 pounds of shell from 75 restaurant partners each week.

BOP volunteer programs not only focus on restoration, but also education.

In total, BOP has restored 15 oyster reefs across all 5 boroughs of the city truly impacting the harbor’s waterways. The endless benefits of these oyster reefs have seen historic levels of sea life return to New York harbor and will continue improving the ecosystem as they are on track to seed 375,000,000 oysters per season by 2024.

Supporting organizations like these inspired us to launch The SeaThread™ Collection, the first fisherman’s sweaters made from a soft blend of recycled oyster shells, recycled water bottles, and natural lambswool. By promoting the use of recycled materials in high quality garments, it’s our goal to help reduce waste, keep oyster shells and water bottles out of landfills, and clean up our local waterways for future generations.

“A portion of sales from each SeaThread™ Sweater will be invested in reseeding coastal oyster reefs.”

Photos from Omar Rawlings, Massachusetts Oyster Project, and Billion Oyster Project.