Oyster - Marine Pollution

Marine Pollution

Oysters consume nitrogen-containing compounds (nitrates and ammonia), removing them from the water. Nitrogen compounds are important phytoplankton nutrients. Phytoplankton increase water turbidity. Limiting the amount of phytoplankton in the water improves water quality and other marine life by reducing competition for dissolved oxygen. Oysters feed on plankton, incidentally consuming nitrogen compounds as well. They then expel solid waste pellets which decompose into the atmosphere as nitrogen. In Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Program plans to use oysters to reduce the amount of nitrogen compounds entering the Chesapeake Bay by 8,600 metric tons (19,000,000 lb) per year by 2010.

The oyster-tecture movement, espoused by Assistant Professor Kate Orff of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, promotes the use of oyster reefs for water purification and wave attenuation. As of 2011, coverage of the Gowanus Canal Parade of Oyster Spats is unavailable. An "Oyster-tecture" project has been implemented at Withers Estuary, Withers Swash, South Carolina, by Neil Chambers-led volunteers, at a site where pollution was impacting beach tourism. Currently, for the installation cost of $3000, roughly 4.8 million liters of water is being filtered daily. In New Jersey, however, oyster-tecture is faring less well. The Department of Environmental Protection refused to allow oysters as a filtering system in Sandy Hook Bay and the Raritan Bay citing worries that commercial shellfish growers would be at risk and that members of the public might disregard warnings and consume tainted oysters.

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