The NY/NJ Baykeeper will deploy our Hockey Stick Habitat Units at multiple sites throughout the Hudson-Raritan Estuary (HRE) as part of our Hockey Stick Oyster Gardening Program.
This program diverts broken, non-biodegradable hockey sticks from the landfill by repurposing them to construct oyster habitat units. The Central Regional High School Hockey Team constructs the units using unwanted and broken hockey sticks collected from the community. Because oysters are functionally extinct in the HRE, simply providing a structure is not enough; the hockey stick units are set with larvae in NY/NJ Baykeeper’s aquaculture facility at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Middletown, NJ. Once the larvae are permanently attached we place the units in various water bodies in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary.
This initiative has re-established Baykeeper’s community programming which has been non-existent since 2010 due to NJDEP’s shellfish regulations for closed waters that currently remain in place. Volunteer Oyster Gardeners and NY/NJ Baykeeper staff will monitor the Hockey Stick Habitat Units and incorporate them into youth STEM and community education programs. These units will provide a great community outreach and education tool that will increase stewardship and understanding of our Estuary. In addition, the unit will provide NY/NJ Baykeeper with valuable data relating to the health of oysters in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary and the potential for future restoration projects.
The Importance of Habitat Restoration in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary
The Hudson-Raritan Estuary (HRE) is the most urban estuary in the world. Due to centuries of pollution, habitat destruction, and development in and around the HRE, most of its shoreline, wetlands, and tributaries have been destroyed or altered – fish, shellfish, birds, and other wildlife have all lost areas critical for reproduction, feeding, and growth. These habitat areas were reduced to the bare minimum needed to sustain life in the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary. Oysters and their reefs provide vital ecosystem services critical both to marine life and the local coastal communities. The reefs provide habitat and serve as areas for marine life to feed, reproduce, hide, and grow, leading to increased biodiversity and population growth. The reefs also act as “speed bumps” for waves, helping to reduce coastal erosion and flooding, and preserve the shoreline.
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.