The expanse of sand flats off Lieutenant Island is littered with clusters of purplish-colored oysters, the delectable shellfish that is so distinctively Wellfleet. But the population of oysters that has taken hold on rocks in the western side of the island is a mere shadow of what it once was.
WELLFLEET — The expanse of sand flats off Lieutenant Island is littered with clusters of purplish-colored oysters, the delectable shellfish that is so distinctively Wellfleet. But the population of oysters that has taken hold on rocks in the western side of the island is a mere shadow of what it once was.
A unique partnership between Audubon, The Nature Conservancy and the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working to revive the wild oyster beds in Wellfleet Harbor.
"Prior to 1972, they were taking 1,000 bushels of oysters out of here every year," said Robert Prescott, director of Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
Today, most likely due to overfishing and disease, the wild population is holding on by a thread, he said.
In a project that started this summer with a $78,000 Nature Conservancy grant, and in-kind private donations, members of the three organizations began the restoration effort.
It is the first attempt at establishing a wild population of the Eastern oyster in the state, according to Kate Killerlain Morrison, marine program director in The Nature Conservancy's Boston office.
The project will serve primarily as a test site to discover where oysters grow best and under what circumstances. It may also give researchers information on disease and predators.
"The most important thing is the science behind this," Prescott said. "It's never been done before."
On a cloudless, wind-free afternoon Friday, at an unusually low tide in Cape Cod Bay, the two artificial reefs built in June were visible. The reefs, about 3 feet wide and 20 feet long and consisting of loose clamshells and shells in plastic mesh bags, are roughly 1,000 feet offshore.
Oysters that had attached to the shells over the summer as tiny seeds, or spat, are now about the size of a quarter. The reefs have also attracted a myriad of other sea life, which in turn provides food for other wildlife like diamondback terrapins, fish and shorebirds, Prescott said.
If winter ice in the bay is minimal and does not scrape the oysters from the reefs, and if shifting sands don't cover them, the shellfish will be well on their way to establishing, he said.
Next year, the project will expand and about 200 other oyster attachment devices will be spread across the two one-acre grants in the flats off the island. In addition to the reefs of sea clams, workers will put out oyster mats, which are oyster shells strung together on a biodegradable mesh mat. The spat prefers to attach to other oysters, Morrison said.
Yet another device they will use are "reef balls," which are concrete blocks to which the spat will also attach. And still another method are "oyster castles," which look like concrete Lego blocks that lock together to form an attractive structure for oysters.
"It's like laying a foundation of a house, said Bethany Walton, project co-director for Audubon.
The three partnering groups will not reap any economic benefit from the project, Prescott said. They are interested in it for scientific reasons. But they are working with the town of Wellfleet to come up with a way to allow local fishermen to harvest the shellfish.
Over the winter, about 10 or so project members will be monitoring the reefs and building the attachment structures.
A two-week period next June "will be madness," said Walton, since workers will have to put the attachment structures in place in time to catch the oyster spat.
If the Wellfleet experiment is successful in establishing wild oyster beds, the science may be used elsewhere in places like Barnstable Harbor and other protected environments, Prescott said.