Jim Waymer

FLORIDA TODAY

Want some free baby oysters to hang from your dock to help cleanse the Indian River Lagoon?

You may be in luck.

By year's end, Brevard Zoo, in partnership with the Brevard County Natural Resources Department, plans to double the size of its volunteer oyster gardening program.

The program, funded by Brevard County, teaches waterfront participants to tap the oyster's filter-feeding prowess to clean the lagoon. Volunteers hang oysters from their docks to grow what county and zoo officials hope to use to build future oyster reefs in the lagoon.

Each adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons a day.

Oyster beds also provide food to many animals, habitat for other invertebrates and fish, and prevent erosion by holding sediments in place.

Participants must have direct waterfront. Canal locations won't be included during this round of oyster gardening, because zoo officials found that the oysters don't do as well in canals, where there is less water circulation.

The county and zoo have enlisted about 500 oyster gardening volunteers so far, but the program is preparing to expand into a second phase that will train another 500 waterfront residents over coming months.

Oyster gardeners also act as citizen scientists, monitoring their habitats to collect data on growth, survival and recruitment of new oysters that will help determine the locations of future reef restoration sites.

In three to six months, the 1 million mature oysters the county plans to have the gardeners grow could filter 25 million to 50 million gallons of lagoon water daily, enough to fill 40 to 80 Olympic pools.

Brevard chipped in $150,000 to start the program.

Officials had worried current water quality might not be good enough to support oysters.

So far, so good.

"They're doing great," said Sammy Anderson, lagoon restoration specialist at the zoo. "Right now, we've seen (oyster) growth all throughout the county."

Oysters will start to reproduce at 18 months to two years of age, Anderson said.

The popular project had already drawn a waiting list for the zoo's free workshops that teach how to oyster garden.

The tiny oysters — about the size of a pinky fingernail — are grown by Florida Oceanographic Society, a nonprofit group in Stuart. The baby oysters cling to oyster shells that will go in metal cages suspended in the water underneath volunteers' docks.

They are the offspring of local adult oysters.

Officials ask that people not eat the oysters, in order to maintain their filter feeding in the lagoon.

The program includes attending one of the free workshops where participants learn about the project, create their oyster habitat (called a page cage) and learn how to care for and monitor their oyster garden.

They must agree to monitor the oysters weekly and to enter details about how the oyster garden is doing into a database.

"It's about a one to two hour a week commitment," Anderson said.

County officials say the project gets the community involved in the solution, starts cleaning the lagoon right away and provides invaluable data on where oyster restoration will work best.

Survival rates of the oysters in specific areas lend vital information as to where we invest in oyster reef construction.

Contact Waymer at 321-242-3663 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @JWayEnviro

Want to attend an upcoming oyster gardening workshop?

Qualified individuals must attend an educational workshop, where supplies and training will be provided. Reservations are required and can be made at www.BrevardOysterRestoration.org. Information about the program is on that website.

Aug. 9, 9:30 a.m. – noon, Eastern Florida State College, 3865 N. Wickham Rd. Melbourne.

Aug. 9, 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Eastern Florida State College, 3865 N. Wickham Rd. Melbourne.

Sept. 12, 9:30 a.m. – noon, Cocoa Beach Country Club, 5000 Tom Warriner Blvd., Cocoa Beach.

Sept. 13, 9:30 a.m. – noon, Trinity Wellsprings Church, 638 S. Patrick Dr., Satellite Beach.

Sept. 13, 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Trinity Wellsprings Church, 638 S. Patrick Dr., Satellite Beach.

Sept. 20, 9:30 a.m. – noon, Eastern Florida State College, 3865 N. Wickham Rd. Melbourne.

Sept. 20, 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Eastern Florida State College, 3865 N. Wickham Rd. Melbourne.

Oct. 9, 9:30 a.m. – noon, Sandrift Community Center, 585 N. Singleton Ave Titusville.

Source: Brevard Zoo