Portsmouth schools among grant winners to create oyster education program
The Chesapeake Oyster Alliance and the Chesapeake Bay Trust awarded 13 grants to organizations to improve and track oyster populations in Virginia and Maryland.
Five of the grants were for Virginia businesses and organizations in Hampton Roads, the Northern Neck, Eastern Shore and the Middle Peninsula.
The COA, based in Richmond, considered proposals with a focus on education, monitoring populations and aquaculture, which is controlled farming of plants and animals in open waters and tanks.
“We have a little bit of everything with the groups we have here,” said Tanner Council, COA manager. “And we get to be part of building our next generation of oyster lovers.”
Portsmouth Public Schools, which received just under $10,000, will develop a program to teach students about raising oysters, collecting oyster data and exploring habitats. The district plans to grow about 6,000 oysters during the year. Students will create public service announcements to engage the community.
The Friends of the Rappahannock was awarded about $3,400 to plan a curriculum for schools in the Northern Neck, a peninsula north of Richmond, and the Middle Peninsula, which includes Mathews, Gloucester and Middlesex counties. The plan will focus on aquaculture, science and restoration.
Barrett’s Neck Seafood LLC in Suffolk received $10,000 to convert the Lion’s Paw Oyster Restoration Education Sanctuary into a living classroom where students can learn about oyster aquaculture.
The other grants are geared toward restoration and keeping the oysters in the water longer before harvest. The Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission and the Long Creek Oyster Company were awarded $10,000. The commission will build artificial reefs for oysters and the company will use the grant to purchase an oyster sorter. The sorter helps prevent smaller oysters from being harvested.
“It is beneficial to the health of the bay,” Council said. “Keeping those oysters in the bay means more time for them to filter the water.”
The COA was founded in 2018 by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to help with the goal of adding 10 billion oysters to the bay by 2025.
The organization and its more than 90 partners have added about 4.7 billion oysters to the bay so far. Oyster populations are at about 1% of the historic levels of the early 1600′s.
Everett Eaton, 262-902-7896, everett.eaton@virginiamedia.com
