After being shucked, drowned in Tabasco and slurped by the dozen, the Louisiana oyster shell has finally found a way to return to its natural habitat. Photo: Jim Gossen/ GSI
by Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana staff and Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
After being shucked, drowned in Tabasco and slurped by the dozen, the Louisiana oyster shell has finally found a way to return to its natural habitat. The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) has kicked off the state’s first formal oyster shell recycling program by collecting over 19,000 pounds of shells from New Orleans area restaurants during its initial weekend.
Project partners supporting the CRCL Oyster Shell Recycling Program include; (l-r) Hilary Collis, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Kent Satterlee, Shell and Dickie Brennan, New Orleans restauratuer.
Empty shells also have a remarkable use. They are some of the best material to create new beds for raising new oysters and restoring oyster reefs. According to the Oyster Recovery Partnership, each shell can be home to 10 new oysters when recycled and replanted.
The goal of the CRCL Oyster Shell Recycling Program is to reuse oyster shell from participating New Orleans restaurants to restore oyster reefs and shoreline habitat across coastal Louisiana. The program is being made possible by a $1 million philanthropic gift from Shell Oil Company.
The oyster recycling program creates a sustainable foundation that will continue to give back to the New Orleans community for years to come,” said Dwight Johnston, Shell Vice President of Health, Safety and Environment. “Responsible energy development to Shell means balancing our natural environment where we work, and this project allows us to develop new energy resources along the gulf coast while giving back to a state that has given us so much by strengthening and protecting Louisiana’s environment.”
“We are very excited to embark on this program, which will allow local restaurants and their patrons to play a part in helping preserve our coast,” said CRCL Restoration Director, Hilary Collis. “Not only are oysters a great part of our cuisine, oyster reefs are an essential part of our coast. This program will harness a resource that is largely lost to landfills and put it to use restoring our oyster reefs and helping protect our eroding shorelines.”
“Oystermen are the true pioneers when it comes to restoring our coast by giving back to Mother Nature,” said Al Sunseri, co-owner of New Orleans P&J Oyster. Photo: LSN
Al Sunseri, co-owner of New Orleans P & J Oyster Company, the oldest shucking houses in the country, is happy to see Shell Oil team with the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana to retrieve the shells from the city’s oyster bars.
“I’m thrilled to see this program re-established years after Mr. Norbert Melan’s retirement from his trucking business,” said Sunseri. “Prior to his death, Mr. Melan transported fresh oyster shells from the downtown restaurants to oyster farmers for decades. P & J has played a major role by sending our shucked shells back to the estuary for more than 100 years, to be dried and planted by our oystermen partners prior to the spawning seasons. Those of us in the oyster community have just never gotten much credit, and very little compensation for the billions of tons of cultch we’ve replaced in Louisiana waters. Oystermen are the true pioneers when it comes to restoring our coast by giving back to Mother Nature.”
Working with Restaurants
Restore Coastal Louisiana is currently working with Acme Oyster House, the Bourbon House, Redfish Grill, Peche Seafood, Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar, and Lüke, and hopes to expand the program to other restaurants as the program continues to grow.
Michael “Hollywood” Broadway, shucking and jiving at the Acme Oyster House. The organization is currently working with Acme, the Bourbon House, Redfish Grill, Peche Seafood, Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar, and Lüke. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
“Plain and simple, our family loves oysters! We are blessed to have a busy Oyster Bar at Bourbon House and it’s a shame to see mineral rich shells go into the trash. I was raised with the mantra ‘we need to leave it better than we found it.’ Oyster shells are the best product to put back in the water to continue the cycle. I’m grateful to have Shell and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana step up and make this program possible,” said Dickie Brennan.
Whether you have a taste for them or not, the oyster is one of nature’s most remarkable creatures. These pearl-makers are not just a briny delicacy; they are the oceans filtration system. One acre of oysters can filter 140 million gallons of water an hour, removing 3,000 pounds of nitrogen a year.
Various Gulf oyster industries, and as well as state and local governments have spent millions of dollars over the years adding oyster cultch back into the Gulf’s bays and estuaries. Cultch acts as a point of attachment for oyster spat, increases the reef size providing a more productive reef.
Bourbon House Seafood Restaurant shucker, Morris Smith, empties shucked shell into a recycling bin. Photo: CRCL
“If oyster reclamation had been done with discarded shells over the past 20 years, we would have had less erosion and more oyster growing area,” said Gulf Seafood Institute board member Jim Gossen, a Louisiana oyster grower. “I’m happy to see the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, and the New Orleans area restaurants, step up and do their part in helping to restore our Gulf Coast. It is vital that this program expand across the Gulf.”
“The main reason we want to be involved in recycling oyster shells is because we’re such a large user of the resource,” said Paul Rotner, Chief Operating Officer of Acme Oyster House. “It’s in our best interest. We need the shells in order to enrich the life span of our current oyster beds and to build new reefs.”
The coastal restoration organization has contracted with Phoenix Recycling of New Orleans to facilitate the collection and transport of shells to a holding facility in Buras. The recycled shells will be used to provide material for CRCL volunteer- based restoration projects and state oyster reef enhancement programs.ion
Creating a Sustainable Foundation
The coastal restoration organization has contracted with Phoenix Recycling of New Orleans to facilitate the collection and transport of shells to a holding facility in Buras. The recycled shells will be used to provide material for CRCL volunteer- based restoration projects and state oyster reef enhancement programs.
To protect the environment and to create a positive presence in the community through activities such as workforce development are some of Shell’s Goals, according to, Dwight Johnston. Photo: Shell Oil
“When Shell enters an area to explore and ultimately set up operations, we do so with a business objective, but we also have two other goals – to protect the environment and to create a positive presence in the community through activities such as workforce development,” said Dwight Johnston, Shell Upstream Americas Deep Water Vice President of Health, Safety and Environment. “Oyster reefs are natural communities that provide extensive ecological and economic benefits. The oyster shell restoration projects will create a ‘living shoreline’ that will continue to grow and offer greater protection into the future.”
Louisiana currently experiences a shell deficit – more shell is removed from Louisiana’s coast than is returned to help maintain oyster reefs. To make up for the deficit, the state uses crushed concrete and limestone to provide a hard substrate for oyster reefs. The oyster recycling will return at least 1,500 tons of shell to Louisiana’s coast each year.
“Our coast is our future,” said CRCL Executive Director, Kimberly Davis Reyher “and this is just the sort of partnership approach we need to restore our coast.”
That is a great project. It is the type of fisheries project that should be done throughout the Gulf and South Atlantic to aid in the restoration of the U.S. oyster industry.
It would be so very worthwhile if Shell Oil would offer a million dollars or more for stock assessment work.
Billions have been spent on feel good projects, but very little oil money has gone for the most important aspect of sustainability which is to count the fish.
You have to know how much is available to sustain.
Am so glad to see the restaurant industry participating in the oyster sustainability process. Most of us who have lived on the Gulf for more than fifty years will remember a time when oyster shell was used as base for roadbeds and driveways. It has been a long time in coming but that trend seems to have permanently passed. Today, civil engineers and builders have turned to other materials such as limestone and crushed/recycled concrete for construction base – a trend that has occurred primarily because of lack of shell. And, those in the oyster industry have long recognized the importance of the recycled shell for refurbishing their shell stock; but most times because they have no control over the shell once it has been sold, their ability to recycle them has been limited. This initiative therefore can produce nothing but good and hats are off the restaurant industry for the part they play in helping to ensure a sustainable resource.
Ed, These are the stories that will sustainably change the Gulf for future generations!!!! Thank you for the vision… A cooperation between public, private and everyone is what it takes to champion a better future for Louisiana Fisheries!