Marine Habitat Restoration

Each spring since 2008, 40 to 60 volunteers have signed on to boost the now decades-long partnership. Volunteer snorkelers collect reproductive shoots containing ripe seeds from the underwater plants. The shoots are measured into water tanks where the seeds are then cured, separated, and prepared for fall planting.

Starting from the mere remnant Orth located nearby, VIMS and TNC have since broadcast more than 72 million seeds into 600 acres to help accelerate the natural spread of eelgrass, which now covers more than 9,500 acres (and counting!) in South, Spider Crab, Hog Island and Cobb Island bays.

In April 2022, researchers from the University of Virginia, working in partnership with TNC, published the results of a 15-year study that offers hope for the bivalve's future. Looking at 16 sites composed of 70 reefs, the study demonstrates that restored reefs can match natural reef oyster populations in about six years and continue to hold strong thereafter. The study also concludes that the ecosystem benefits that restored reefs provide can catch up within a decade—meaning cleaner and clearer water as well as habitat that supports coastal fisheries.

What makes for a successful oyster reef? And where is the “sweet spot” for oysters to survive and thrive? These are questions being addressed in another study conducted by Virginia SeaGrant and UVA Ph.D. candidate Kinsey Tedford.

Working with TNC Coastal Scientist Bo Lusk, Kinsey is monitoring 18 oyster reefs at the Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve, taking detailed measurements for elevation, oyster growth and reef structure, to see what conditions are most important to optimize reef survival and growth. The results of this study will help inform TNC's long-term restoration efforts.

But after more than 80 years, the tide may be turning. Along with our partners at VIMS, we’re working to build on our successful eelgrass restoration efforts by returning bay scallops to Virginia waters.

VVCR Coastal Scientist Bo Lusk assisted VIMS in releasing the first test batch of 5,500 juvenile bay scallops on August 4, 2009 in a seagrass meadow in South Bay. Scallops affix themselves to blades of seagrass which provide shelter from strong currents and from predators like crabs and rays.

We have begun working with VIMS on several projects, including an effort to produce and grow scallops from larvae to juvenile size. 3 million of VIMS’ bay scallop larvae are currently being raised in TNC setting tanks. In May 2017, we released 12.3 million bay scallop larvae that were spawned by VIMS and Cherrystone Aquafarms into the eelgrass in South Bay. The hope is to eventually restore a self-sustaining population of bay scallops to Virginia waters.

“One of the most rewarding things about this project to me is that I can take my children—my two little girls—and when we go walking on the beach, looking at shells, and they pick up an old dead scallop shell, they know exactly where it came from,” said Lusk. “It’s neat that scallops aren’t just something that your grandmother told you about. For them it will be something that’s really here, and we’ll see what we can make of it.”