Rink2Reef® Chesapeake Bay is the flagship chapter of the Rink2Reef Program.
The program focuses on providing reefs and oyster restoration efforts for the Chesapeake Bay and throughout the waters of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.
With the Chesapeake Bay being the largest tributary in the United States and a significant source of Brackish water, the bay is an ideal spawning tributary for the eastern oyster population.
Rink2Reef Chesapeake works with numerous civic organizations and hockey related entities as well as non-profit and corporate partners in the Delmarva region to collect donated broken sticks, build reefs and develop additional oyster restoration opportunities.
Proceeds from reef sales for the Rink2Reef Chesapeake Bay Chapter fund spat on shell oyster sets which is the primary technique for oyster restoration efforts in the Bay.
Why Oysters Are Important.
Oysters are a type of shell fish found in both saltwater and brackish estuaries. They are filter feeders, which means oysters strain the water around them feeding on plankton and other particles of food while removing pollutants. A single oyster in optimal conditions can filter as many as 50 gallons of water per day. As few as 100 oysters in an small area can filter bad nutrients and spit out crystal-clear water at a rate of 5,000 gallons a day.
With Rink2Reef®, oysters seek out and attach to the artificial hockey stick reefs. The 9.17-cubic- foot hockey-stick units become home to as many as 400 oysters. A single Rink2Reef habitat could clean 20,000 gallons of water per day. Oysters are nature’s perfect water filter, constantly cycling and improving water quality.
What is Rink2Reef® ?
Hockey sticks are made from non-recyclable materials, and broken or discarded sticks will end up in landfills.
Rink2Reef® recycles these otherwise useless sticks to create habitats for oysters along with other filter-feeding aquatic organisms that remove pollutants and excessive nutrients from creeks, rivers and estuaries.
Sticks are measured, cut and constructed into stackable style reefs held together by thick monofilament fishing line. The structure allows a surface for oyster larvae, called spat, to attach and grow into mature oysters
With the reefs suspended in the water, growing oysters have access to food passing by like plankton while filtering nutrients and pollutants. One single adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons per day.