is a sustainable organization dedicated to providing a means to collect and recycle shells, thus ensuring that they return to the ocean to further promote the establishment and success of our local oyster populations. The benefits of this service are many: it will alleviate the shell shortage present in South Carolina that necessitates the importation of shells from other states. It will also prev
ent shell from needlessly entering already overburdened landfills. Finally, it will help to restore our shorelines and intertidal water quality and species. Oysters are a crucial species in the estuarine waters of South Carolina. Overfishing, pollution, and disease have had devastatingly negative affects on oyster populations around the world. By returning shell to the waters of lowcountry South Carolina, we can help to create habitat for oyster larvae, called spat, to attach to. This, in turn, will help to grow the oyster habitat and accelerate it's beneficial services to the intertidal region. These services include water filtration and habitat creation for other intertidal species such as other sessile filter feeders, crustaceans, and juvenile fish. Shell collected from restaurants in the area who serve shellfish will be quarantined to remove any potentially invasive species. Then, they will be returned to the state to be deposited on insore water beds. These shells will become a structure for oyster spat to attach to, and overtime the beds will grow, proliferate, and become a structure teeming with life.
