Arron Jones loads concrete oyster "tiles" into a boat biologists and volunteers will use to transport them to their new home.
Divers, scientists and local shellfish experts work to place baby oysters in their new home off of a rocky peninsula in the Basin Preserve.
Divers prepare to "plant" baby oysters at their new home in the Basin Preserve. Because oysters are filter-feeders, they are often regarded as a natural ally in the fight to improve water quality – they suck up microorganisms, sediments, nitrogen and nutrients from the water.
"This is the perfect area to put them. ... Hopefully, it will work, and these will spawn and settle in the area," fisherman Dean Doyle says. The team also planned to test other methods of oyster cultivation in the hopes that one, or several, will successfully establish a larger, self-sustaining oyster population.
Jeremy Bell, a aquatic habitat restoration manager for The Nature Conservancy, on site as a crew places baby oysters into their new home off of a rocky peninsula in the Basin Preserve.
Will Brune wanders back out toward where the oyster tiles are while working for The Nature Conservancy to place baby oysters into their new home off of a rocky peninsula in the Basin Preserve.
David Courtemanch, a freshwater scientist with The Nature Conservancy, holds the boat steady as divers place the oyster tiles and weights below the water. The Conservancy worked with the Phippsburg Shellfish Commission, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine Department of Marine Resources on the oyster project.
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