Oysters in BL

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by B-Stealth

Pop quiz.

Can anyone tell me what organizations have funded the construction of artificial reefs in the Calcasieu estuary?

10 times the money used to construct artifical reefs in Louisiana has been used by this organization to construct living oyster reefs in Galveston Bay.

Anyone who has spent time fishing the Calcasieu estuary knows that there already a lot of hard substrate (jetties, rocks, pilings, weirs, industrial fixtures, etc.)

Dumping more rocks is of far less benefit that restoring living oyster reefs that provide a wealth of ecosystem services including: filtering of water for increased light penetration and primary production, buffering of anthropogenic inputs, improving water quality, increasing benthopelagic coupling, improved benthic biodiversity, improved habitat for epibenthic invertebrates, carbon sequestration, and augmented fish production.

Of course, CCA is aware that oyster reefs are far more beneficial to an ecosystem than non-living material, which is why TX gets the oyster reefs, and LA gets rock dumps.