Salinity zone maps are readily available online and in TOGA’s publications. The salinity level also affects the taste of the oysters, with oysters grown in saltier water tasting more salty, and lower salinity water producing a more buttery flavor. The higher the salinity, the faster the oysters grow.
Oysters feed by filtering water and ingesting microscopic food particles (plankton). The water depth needs to be a least one foot, even at low tide.
The location for growing oysters successfully, and whether the oysters will be safe to eat, relies on a few key requirements. The pier at the home of Terry and Mary Ann Lewis, with floating oyster containers, on the Piankatank River. Thousands of adults and young students have been introduced by TOGA to the benefits of growing your own oysters and, most importantly, to the awareness of the importance of helping to improve the ecology of the Bay.
TOGA’s main goal is to educate people of all ages in oyster aquaculture methods by participating in over 25 educational outreach events each year. TOGA is a non-profit organization established in 1997 to promote the environmental health of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries through oyster cultivation.
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Terry Lewis, current president of TOGA, recommends joining the organization ($15.00 annual membership) to take full advantage of the education, workshops, special events, and camaraderie of growing oysters. One such organization is the Tidewater Oyster Gardening Association (TOGA), an invaluable resource for individuals who want to learn the art of growing oysters. Thanks to increased awareness, government agencies, environmental organizations, and private citizens alike are all working to restore the Bay’s oyster population. Terry Lewis, president of the Tidewater Oyster Growers Association, TOGA TOGA Knows Oysters Oysters play a vital role in the Bay’s ecosystem by creating a marine habitat that supports dozens of other species, encourages the growth of bay grasses, and by filtering water at the rate of 50 gallons per day per oyster. Fast forward to today and we find the oyster population to be less than one percent of those historic levels, decimated in the past 200 years by overharvesting, loss of habitat, pollution, and parasitic diseases. But that is exactly what the first European settlers encountered when they arrived in the Bay area in the early 1600s. With an economic return of $7 for every dollar invested, oyster reef restoration in the Piankatank River is an important step towards bringing a vital natural-and economic-resource back to the Chesapeake Bay.īy restoring and repopulating large oyster reefs in key parts of the bay, we hope to reach a tipping point where oyster populations become sustainable, expanding their numbers and the benefits they and their reefs provide.A handful of oysters ready for harvest.For those of us who live along the Chesapeake Bay, it’s hard to imagine looking out beyond the shoreline and seeing oyster reefs protruding above the water in clusters so mighty that some waterways were impassable or too treacherous to navigate. With the high productivity of the system, there is a high probability that restoration efforts will result in self-sustaining oyster populations. Considered a trap estuary, the circulatory pattern of water in the river helps to retain oyster larvae that will eventually attach to the hard substrate in the system (like the concrete and granite being placed by TNC) where the spat will grow. The Piankatank River was selected in part because of its unique flow and strong natural retention of oyster larvae. High pressure water hoses are used to deposit the smaller sized substrate floating cranes and barges are used to precisely place the granite in rows along the reef sites. Reefs have been constructed using clean, crushed concrete or granite. TNC has invested nearly $1 million into this decade-long restoration effort in the Piankatank, leveraging nearly five times that amount from our partners and surpassing the shared goals we set out to achieve for oyster restoration in this key tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.
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