Recycled oyster shells are a key part of coastal restoration
Oyster naturally grow in reef formation. Baby oysters - called spat - float through the water looking for oyster shells to grow on. By collecting, cleaning, and seeding oyster shell alongside oysters from our upwellers, we create a favorable environment for oyster reefs to grow.
Since 2021, Massachusetts Oyster Project has been working with the town of Wellfleet and restaurants across Cape Cod to pick up their oyster shells. Those shell are treated for a year and then planted along the Wellfleet coast. These are shells that would have otherwise ended up in the dump but instead are contributing to rebuilding our beaches and shores.
Photo by Cory Silken
Eat oysters for a good cause
Visit one of our supporting restaurants to enjoy oysters knowing that the shells will be heading to our restauration program.
Support the program
Individual donations make up a big portion of our funding. Become a recurring donor to support oyster shell pickup and help us grow the program.
Start recycling at your restaurant
We only pick up on Cape Cod right now, but we are keeping a list of interested partners as we plan our expansion. Not sure? Reach out.
Recycling your personal oyster shell
Right now, we only recycle shell from partner restaurants and events. Cities and small nonprofits across the Commonwealth are running their own recycling programs. If you want to recycling your own shell, check out of one of these local shell-recycling programs.
Why recycle?
Recycling oyster shells reduces the amount of oyster shells that end up in landfills while also building the base - literally - of coastal restoration efforts. Find out more about how oyster shells contribute to our coastal ecosystem.
Oysters and Wellfleet
Wellfleet’s long, gently sloping shoreline was historically covered in oyster reefs. The native Wampanoag people harvested shellfish long before the Europeans came. One of the first European explorers to the area, Samuel de Champlain, named it Port aux Huitres (“Oyster Port”) due to the abundance of oysters in the area.
Shellfish harvest has been important to the town’s economy over its history, even during the booms and busts of the town’s whaling and herring industries. Recently, the wilder oyster harvest and oyster farming have grown even more important. Oyster connoisseurs around the country are now familiar with Wellfleet oysters.
The wild harvest is so popular that the town works to ensure the natural population doesn't vanish. Whenever an oyster is harvested, its shell is removed from the environment. This removes the substrate and calcium carbonate supply that the shell provides for the environment.
Oysters spawn a few times a year. Baby oyster larvae, called veligers, are able to “swim” to find a permanent home to spend their lives. They follow chemical signals in the water, looking for something hard to attach to. It can be anything, but the ideal surface for baby oyster is other oysters! Whether it’s a shell or a rock, the larvae settles on a surface (this phase lasts for a week or two). The baby oyster then loses its ability to swim and will live there for the rest of its life. Oysters that can’t find a hard surface can get covered over and smothered by shifting sands or sediment. They can’t dig around like clams can. That is one reason why they grow together to form large structures.
By returning shells back to the environment, this ensures that the oyster larvae will have a place to settle. The town of Wellfleet spends $10,000 each year to ship clam shell from Rhode Island to serve as shell bed, aka “cultch”, for the natural oyster spawn. Meanwhile Wellfleet restaurants and consumers are generating a large amount of shell right in town that ultimately ends up in a landfill! We are hoping to halt this trend by collecting the shell generated by local restaurants and give it to the town to use as cultch.
