Oyster Maintenance Days

Greetings WeGrO Partners. I'm now in the maintenance phase of my project and have set a maintenance schedule (see below). Please feel free to come out and help, but if you could e-mail me first that would be great. Most of the work will be done from the water by kayak or canoe, so bring one if you have one - just be sure you have a personal flotation device (pfd). If you do not have a kayak or boat, that is okay, come out anyway, there are plenty of other opportunities to work. For instance, we will need someone to take pictures on each of the maintenance days, so if you are willing to help with photography, just let me know - we will supply the camera. The first workday is this Saturday, May 3rd, from 9:00 am to about 10:00 am. All maintenance days will meet at 425 Riverside Dr. Thank you!

WeGrO Maintenance Days:

May 3rd - 9:00 to 10:00
May 17th - 9:00 to 10:00
May 30th - 1:00 to 2:00
June 14th - 1:00 to 2:00
June 28th - 1:00 to 2:00
July 12th - 1:00 to 2:00
July 27th - 9:00 to 10:00
August 9th - 9:00 to 10:00
August 23rd - 9:00 to 10:00
September 7th - 1:00 to 2:00
September 20th - Harvest Day TBD

Launch Day Recap

Saturday was a very productive day. We finished 15 Taylor floats (we built an example float the day before) and then proceeded to tie them to the piers at each host site. I had a lot of help and support from members of Troop 207, my family, and friends, as well as some host site volunteers. I would like to thank everyone who helped that day, especially given the weather conditions, and a special shout out to the Winch family and Ms. Hamed for putting all 256 hog rings on the wire mesh cages which, for those of you without experience with hog rings, is not an easy task. While the biggest single day of activity is behind me, the next 22 weeks will involve 11 maintenance days to check on the oysters and the floats. Stay tuned for more information on how to help with that aspect of the project!

Me demonstrating how to attach the hog rings

Chase Phillips, a new Tiger Cub, measuring out seed oysters into the grow-out bags

Heather Bruce (Mom) showing off one of the finished floats

Dan Cronin (Troop 207 Scoutmaster), Ryan Colston (Eagle Scout), and Blake Trevino (new Scout and long time Troop 207 Mascot) launch one of the Taylor floats.

One Example - More Later

Here's a quick shot of one of the 16 floats we put in the water today. Thanks to all of the volunteers who made it happen!

Picking Up 17,000 Friends Tomorrow

So much to do and so little time! I am just one day away from the build and launch date for my Eagle Scout project. Tomorrow we will be cutting the PVC and the wire cages into the lengths we will need as well as picking up the oysters - all 17,000 of them - from Gloucester. We will be building the baskets in front of 425 Riverside Dr. in Portsmouth, VA from 9 a.m. to noon. After we build we will distribute them. I am so excited to really get the ball rolling on my project! Stay tuned for more updates!

 

T-Shirts my family had made to show their support of my project

Presentation, Permits, and PVC

There's been a lot of activity since my last post. I was privileged to share my project at the monthly meeting of the Waterview Civic League last Monday, and there were great questions from the audience and a useful suggestion from the police officer assigned to our neighborhood regarding labeling the floats in the case they break free from the piers over the course of the project. I even left with a donation that night (thank you Ms. Jantzen!) and had my largest number of pageviews to the blog immediately following the meeting. I've also been working on the permitting process and delivered the applications to each of the 10 host sites this morning. Those will go to VMRC and they use the permits for reporting purposes to document the scale of oyster replenishment efforts throughout Virginia. Lastly, my Dad and I went to Virginia Beach this morning to pick up some of the PVC donated by Bay Mechanical (special thanks to Ben Phillips for helping secure that donation, and to Jack Goodwin for the use of his pickup!). We spent a portion of the afternoon cutting the PVC into the lengths we will need for the floats. Tomorrow will include some materials purchases and the build/deployment day is just a week away! Thanks for staying tuned, and join us next Saturday at 425 Riverside Drive, Portsmouth, VA 23707 from 9:00-Noon if you're interested in helping with the build!

Me presenting at the Civic League:

Me with Ben Phillips from Bay Mechanical

A Little History

As homeowners sign on to host Taylor floats and others become interested in the project, I thought an article from VIMS would provide some useful history about why oyster aquaculture is important and why the Taylor float is a useful way to go about raising seed oysters.

A Great Start

So thankful for all of the momentum this week. We've had six residents agree to host floats so far and I'll be presenting to our civic league on Monday night. I've also had amazing support from the Portsmouth Service League, the Portsmouth Children First Lions Club, and Bay Mechanical in the form of donations. Our float build day will be Saturday, April 19th from 9:00-Noon, and I'm hopeful we can get the oysters in the water the same day. It's all very exciting - stay tuned for more updates!