Calusa Waterkeeper holds vertical oyster garden class
On Saturday, March 29, Calusa Waterkeeper ranger Sue Dahod ran a vertical oyster garden class-type learning experience at Carmen’s Kayaks for anyone interested in learning about oysters, which are capable of filtering up to 50 gallons of water per day.
“Everybody seemed to have fun. They asked a lot of good questions,” Dahod said.
She also said participants were given an instruction sheet regarding how to hang their vertical oyster reef on their dock. Calusa Waterkeeper is also planning to send out a periodic email with a request for an update on the health of the oyster gardens, she said.
“That’s a new thing that Calusa Waterkeeper is doing. We’re going to send out a survey, have them send us pictures with the height and width and tell us what kind of critters are on it. That kind of information gives us scientific information,” Dahod said.
This kind of engagement ultimately improves education within the community, she said. The CWK holds this kind of educational program once a quarter, she said. Generally, punching holes in the shells would be done previously, for the participants, however, Dahod said, they seemed to enjoy doing this themselves with a metal punch tool and hammer.
“We provided a wooden block to punch them on. We did all that outdoors,” Dahod said.
There were six punching stations provided, for participants who were very enthusiastic, she said, with the entire program taking less than an hour and a half.
“They take out bacteria and are capable of making the water look much clearer. They eat all the bitty critters that are in the water,” Dahod said.
The whole purpose of an oyster garden is to attract baby oysters, Dahod said. The baby oysters will attach to something, she said.
“They tend to attach to another oyster, and that’s how you get oyster beds. Once they attach they grow. In addition to oysters you get all kinds of other things like barnacles and muscles and sponges and crabs and little fish. So the oyster garden really does become a garden of all kinds of creatures,” Dahod said.
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