Oyster Shell Recycling

DNR Planting Oyster Shell

We are lucky in South Carolina that our shellfish harvest has remained stable for the last 30 years.  This is in part to the efforts of DNR’s oyster shell recycling program.  As demand for bushels of oysters for backyard oyster roasts goes up, it is important now more than ever to create new habitats for oysters to grow.  One way that everyone who eats oysters can help with this is by recycling your shells after your oyster roast.  You recycle your cans and bottles, right? 

When oysters spawn in the late spring and early summer months, they release free-swimming larvae that is locally known as “spat”.  The spat spend the first two weeks of their lives adrift and at the whims of the tide and current.  After that, they look for a suitable place to attach to and begin building their calcium carbonate shell.  Unless they are disturbed, they will remain where they have attached for the rest of their lives.  Their shell will then in turn provide a landing spot for more spat.

The most desirable material for spat to attach is other oyster shells.  There has been success with other materials as well, such as wooden stakes, hog wire, and concrete, but shell is by far the best (and most natural).  What we do on our lease is look for areas where there are no oyster beds next to areas where the oysters grow well.  We will plant the shells on a mud flat and let it sit until the spat are out.  They will attach to the shell and repeat their life cycle until a few years have gone by, and we have a new spot to harvest oysters.

DNR does essentially the same thing, but on a much larger scale.  They collect and plant tens of thousands of bushels of shell every year.  Click here for more information and to find the recycling location nearest to you.