October 22, 2015 — NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. – Nearly all of southeastern North Carolina’s waters are now open for shellfish harvesting after heavy rains and floods left most areas polluted earlier this month.
Not only are oysters one of the state’s most popular shellfish to eat, but the shells themselves can be used as hardworking landscape material, in the form of driveways and patios.
Oyster shells make up many of the paths at Colonial Williamsburg to to get around. But starting October 1, a new law went into effect prohibiting contractors from using the shells in commercial landscaping.
The new law is an effort to increase the state’s oyster shell recycling program, where the shells are used to rebuilt oyster reefs.
“Oysters happen to be one of the few species that when we harvest it, we take the habitat right along with it, so we are trying to put that back into place,” said UNC-Wilmington’s Troy Alphin. “Larvae oysters depend on the adult oyster shell for settlement, and they have a very narrow window for settlement in their life span, only a couple of weeks. So if the shells are not in the water, they are not available for the larvae to settle on, these larvae will die. What we are trying to do is make sure the shells are back in the water as soon as we can they will be available for the next generation of oysters.”
At a summit earlier this year, North Carolina ecologists, scientists and politicians announced new efforts to make North Carolina the “Napa Valley of Oysters.” One way that can be accomplished is by developing new oyster sanctuaries, something that Virginia and other states have already done.
A healthy oyster population is linked to the overall health of coastal fisheries.