PEARL HOMES are places where people care about our environment and want to do what they can to help protect our resources.
*NEW Location
3712 Holland Rd
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
Contact# 757-962-5398
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Restoring our Lynnhaven River native oyster population has been an important part of our restoration efforts from the beginning of our organization. Surveys have identified approximately 102 acres of baseline restored oyster reef in the Lynnhaven River including Broad Bay, Linkhorn Bay, the Inlet and the Eastern and Western Branches. About 56 acres is subtidal restored reef constructed over the past fifteen years and the remaining 36 acres are constructed over natural shoreline or intertidal reef. Our next milestone is 152 acres of restored oyster reef. This has been determined to be the acreage needed to sustain a healthy oyster population in the Lynnhaven. Working with our federal, state, and local government partners – along with our educational and nonprofit partners – we are making steady progress toward reaching our goal.
Recent and upcoming oyster restoration projects:
The plans have been made, the grant funds obtained and the partners are all in place to build at least twelve acres of restored reef at various locations in the Western Branch of the Lynnhaven. The Witchduck reef locations will be the first subtidal reef work in the Western Branch of the Lynnhaven. We hope to see results that match the tremendous growth we have seen in the Eastern Branch. We are using crushed concrete in lieu of oyster shells (which would be the best substrate) because there simply aren’t enough oyster shells for this size project. Concrete and oyster shells both have the same base compound (calcium carbonate) which attracts the free swimming oyster larvae. We have done extensive research and field experiments and have found crushed concrete is the next best thing after oyster shells to create a reef. After we complete the substrate reef construction, our partner in this project (CBF) will seed the reefs with about 4 million “spat” which are tiny baby oysters that have settled on shells. All of those won’t survive, but we hope a good percentage will. In addition to that seeding, we hope and expect natural settlement of the reefs to add at least an equal amount of baby oysters over the first couple of years. So potentially these reefs could result in millions of adult oysters eventually. Click here to read more on the Pilot Online.
Watch how we build!
All of these oysters are helping to clean the water and provide habitat not only for baby oysters to attach and grow, but for sponges, worms, crabs, and juvenile fish to shelter and grow. Each reef becomes an ecosystem supporting a healthy marine environment.
One adult oyster can filet 50 gallons of water per day. Look what these amazing oysters can do over the course of 1 hour!
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Watch this video to learn more about our Oyster Restoration Program!
Provided by The Meridian Group
PEARL HOMES are places where people care about our environment and want to do what they can to help protect our resources.
Lynnhaven River NOW recognizes schools providing outstanding environmental education as a Pearl School.
PEARL BUSINESSES are essential to truly move towards a more sustainable Virginia Beach and cleaner waters.
We all want to do our part to restore the health of all of our sacred waterways and protect them for future generations to enjoy.
SUSTAINABLE YARDS PROGRAM: Let us help you “green” your Lynnhaven watershed home. This unique program provides specific stormwater management practices to your yard at a significantly reduced cost to you.