Community Corner

Volunteers Wanted: Become an Oyster Gardener

Help protect the Shinnecock Bay this summer.

The Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program is looking for volunteers this summer to help raise oysters that will help filter the bay way, fighting both brown and red tides.

The restoration program, which was founded by the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University and its Institute for Ocean Conservation Science, is offering the opportunity to Southampton residents.

Oyster gardeners will be responsible for raising tiny seed oysters at the Tiana Bay community oyster garden until they are large enough to be transplanted into the Shinnecock Bay. 

To get started, participants pay $200, which buys 1,000 baby oysters and two floating cages to protect them while they grow. In addition, the fee covers 6 Tuesday morning workshops from July through October, where oyster gardeners can tend to their cages while learning about aquaculture and the oysters’ role in the restoration of Shinnecock Bay.

An orientation session is scheduled for Tuesday June 18 at 7 p.m.

Volunteers will work under the Southold Project in Aquaculture Training program, which is a program sponsored by Suffolk County Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Southampton Town Trustees and Parks and Recreation Department.

For more information or to volunteer, contact Chris Woods at shinnecockbay@gmail.com.


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