The Bronx River, which decades ago was mired in filth, is now home to thousands of oysters thanks to restoration efforts of such organizations like NY/NJ Baykeeper and Hudson River Foundation.
After a summer of building a massive reef for them (one of the largest in the city) this past Saturday, 100,000 oysters came home to the Bronx in the Soundview area of out borough.
Winnie Hu of the New York Times reports:
These Bronx oysters are not destined for the dinner plate or coveted as a source of pearls, but instead are prized for their ability to filter pollutants and anchor a marine ecosystem with their craggy reefs.
“They’re ecological engineers,” said Dennis Suszkowski, science director of the Hudson River Foundation in Lower Manhattan, which is overseeing the oyster reef in the Bronx River. “Oysters will grow on top of one another and create a three-dimensional habitat with all sorts of nook and crannies for fish to feed and use as shelter. It’s the kind of habitat that was once here that is no longer here.”
Just like the borough it runs through, our mighty river is coming back to life.
Read the full story here.