Coastal Landowners Sought for Rhode Island Oyster Gardening Program

Roger Williams faculty and aquaculture experts aim to expand oyster restoration across the state

June 15 , 2006, BRISTOL—Rhode Island coastal landowners now can extend their gardens into waters offshore – with oysters. Aquaculture extension specialists at Roger Williams University, along with the Rhode Island Aquaculture Initiative under the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council, are seeking coastal landowners in the state to join an oyster gardening program.

Volunteer landowners will help raise juvenile oysters in waters off their properties along the shores of Narragansett Bay and the Rhode Island coastal ponds, helping to expand oyster restoration across the state. Participants living by Rhode Island-approved waters open to shellfish harvesting will receive several thousand young oysters to grow from their docks or shorelines in wire cages or floating bags. In addition, volunteers can join educational workshops, learn oyster maintenance and get monitoring assistance to determine oyster growth and survival rates. 

Hosts will receive native juvenile oysters that have been bred in the Roger Williams University shellfish hatchery, the only such hatchery in the state, on the school’s Bristol campus. University shellfish experts see this program as an ideal way for members of the public to get involved in a crucial effort to bring back native shellfish populations that have been decimated by pollution, over-harvesting and disease.

Interested volunteers should contact Steven Patterson, coordinator of the Oyster Gardening program, or Dale Leavitt, assistant professor of marine biology, at the University’s Center for Economic and Environmental Development, at (401) 450-2581 or oysters@rwu.edu, by Sunday, June 25.