Alabama to spend $9.8 million to restore Mobile Bay oyster beds

Alabama to spend $9.8 million to restore Mobile Bay oyster beds

The AL Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) recently received approval of $7 million for oyster restoration in Mobile Bay. An additional $2.8 million from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Draft Restoration Plan will be approved in November.
The Alabama component of the regionwide project includes construction of new brood reefs or supplementation to existing reefs at multiple sites on the western portions of mid and lower Mobile Bay.
During the first and second years of the seven year project, ADCNR will use existing bottom mapping, water quality data, habitat suitability indices and larval transport models to identify appropriate locations for brood and sink reefs for each project component and conduct pre-construction oyster surveys, engineering and design activities, environmental compliance consultations and permitting.
In years three and four, ADCNR will construct reefs based on the engineering plans developed in years one and two. In years five through seven, oyster reefs will be monitored for abundance, density, size distribution and larval settlement.
“We have invested heavily in oyster research, reef mapping, oyster larval transport models and research and hardscape restoration activities,’’ said ADCNR Commissioner Blankenship. “We have implemented oyster management stations for commercial harvesters and employ a revolutionary grid system to monitor harvest. We are enhancing reefs in harvestable and protected areas and are partnering with organizations and our federal partners to grow our oyster resources.”
The $9.8 million in oyster restoration funding builds on work previously undertaken by ADCNR for oyster restoration. More than 1,000 acres of oyster reef have been restored by ADCNR using cultch material in two projects that were funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund and NRDA.

ADCNR is partnering with the Auburn Extension Service on the Oyster Grow-Out Restoration and Reef Placement project. Phase I of the project was funded in Restoration Plan II in 2018 and includes placement of oysters on three off-bottom oyster reefs in Portersville Bay, Bon Secour Bay and Grand Bay. This was a $962,000 project. The oysters were grown out by participants in the very popular oyster gardening program administered by Auburn University Marine Extension Service and transferred to the reefs at the end of each growing season.