RESTORE AMERICAS ESTUARIES Peter Malinowski Chief Oyster Officer New York Harbor School

New York Harbor School Billion Oyster Project

Public Access Eelgrass

Beds

Coastal Wetlands

Oyster Reefs

Habitat for Fish,

Crabs, and Lobsters

Shorelines and

Shallows

Maritime Forests

Waterbird Islands

Tributary Connections Stream Corridors

Sediment Quality

Enclosed & Confined Waters

A Billion Oysters? – Like “Million Trees

NYC” – Measurable, tangible

goal – Modest goal given

historic reefs and Comprehensive Restoration Plan goals

Contaminated Resource Lost Connection Over 400 CSO pipes

Harbor School

Harbor School CTE Programs

Existing Facilities plus 600 Miles of Waterfront

100,000,000 Oyster Shells Discarded Annually

1,100,000 Public School Students

Partners

The New York Harbor Foundation

MAST CENTER

Marine Science and Technology Center

Eco-dock and future MAST Center

Harbor School building

Governors Island facilities

Governors Island oyster reef

Harbor School Home Port

Wallabout Basin Oyster Nursery

….and more facilities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Water Retention

Larval Retention

Comprehensive Restoration Plan

It IS intended to: • Provide a shared vision of a

restored estuary • Serve as a Blueprint and

regional master plan for future restoration

• Coordinate and align regional restoration activities

• Adopted by the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Plan

• Serve as living document actively managed to track progress

Target Ecosystem Characteristics

[What] [Where] [How Much] [By When]

Revised Plan Governors Island Restoration

Possible Plan for Governors Island

• ~ 3 acres of tidal wetlands • Floating wetlands in eco-dock area for habitat and wave

attenuation • ~ 160 acres of oyster reefs (adding to new rock revetment) • Enhance shallow water habitat along ~1200 linear feet of

existing sandy shoreline and possible terraced tidal flat • ~ 160 acres complex subtidal habitat for fish/crabs/lobster • Implement experimental restoration techniques

Unique USACE/NY Harbor School Partnership

• Harbor School students would provide: – baseline data for existing conditions (water quality,

biological surveys, etc) – oyster spat for initial population of oyster reefs,

reseeding (if necessary) and maintenance – Long-term Post construction monitoring – Program/sampling integrated into school’s curriculum

Middle School Oyster Gardeners

Breeding Colonies Data Outreach Engagement Recruitment

Oyster Gardening Wiki

DATA COLLECTION

Below- examples of the oyster life cycle

Marine Science •Aquaculture •Marine Biology Research

Marine Technology • Marine Systems Tech • Ocean Engineering • Scientific Diving • Vessel Operations

Our Curriculum: Six Career and Technical Education Programs

Our Curriculum: An integrated Program

We need •Writers to write permit applications and report on our progress •Mathematicians to perform the statistical analyses on our data sets •Scientists to conduct research and collect data •Historians to research historic oyster distributions •Artists to design our press materials to convey our message to the public