Tampa restaurants and non-profit team up to create more oyster habitats

TAMPA, Fla. - Recycling, as a rule, is great for the environment, but for the Tampa Restaurant Oystercatchers, recycling brings an immediate benefit to their business and the environment.

Viktor Merenyi, Executive Chef at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, described it this way, "We have one of the biggest oyster-selling restaurants in Tampa Bay area, so about 500 a week."

His restaurant collects and recycles the oyster shells to help create more oyster habitats.

"It's great because I just cannot take it," admitted Merenyi, "We have to put something back for the future generation, be able to enjoy it the same way as I am now."

So Oystercatchers teamed up with Tampa Bay Watch to create oyster gardens.

Richard Radigan is the Oyster Shell Program Manager for Tampa Bay Watch. He talked about the partnership this way, "Our goal is to take that shell and recycle it and put it into our water to serve as a substrate or a home, if you will, for baby oysters."

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Tampa Bay Watch and Oystercatchers created vertical oyster gardens right there off of their Bayport Drive location.

The vertical gardens are created from the natural oyster shells and suspended into the coastal waters off of the dock. 

"So by increasing that available habitat, we are increasing the number of oysters that are living in our Tampa Bay waters," said Radigan, "As we hang them, and the shells stay in the water for a certain amount of time, oysters will recruit to that, and then they will grow bigger and bigger, and you get these hanging gardens of oysters."

Those hanging gardens of oysters ultimately help increase the population of mollusks in the bay and help keep the bay cleaner and healthier for other wildlife.

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"They are biological filtration devices," shared Radigan, "So, what happens is as an adult oyster grows, depending on the size and the health, it can actually filter up to two gallons of water an hour, so roughly 50 gallons of water a day."

Radigan continued, "It's a win-win. Not only do people who come in and frequent these establishments help the local economy, they're doing their part to help improve our bay, too, by ordering oysters and eating the oysters at these participating restaurants. We're able to get those oysters out of the restaurant. We're able to put them in the water and increase our oyster populations. It makes for a more beautiful bay."

To learn more about Tampa Bay Watch and their reef restoration work click here.