Finished!

Well, after 22 weeks I finished my Eagle project yesterday. It was exciting to get the oysters out of their floats and onto the reef. A huge thanks to the homeowners, sponsors, and volunteers who made the project a reality, especially Ryan Colston for the use of his boat and Erin Colston for being our photographer by kayak. And, the project will live on via a handful of homeowners who have asked for floats to use into the future. This will be my final post - thanks for following along!

Oyster Harvest Day

Hi everyone. Oyster harvest day is now less than a week away. On Saturday, September 20th at 7:00am, bright and early, we will meet in front of 425 Riverside Dr. This is everyone's last chance to come out and help or observe. We will be taking a boat to dump the oysters and people are free to ride and help with the dumping process, although people will have to take turns. After we finish with the oysters (around 10 o'clock am) we will have sort of a mini-party with coffee and donuts. Please RSVP at waterviewgrowsoysters@gmail.com if you are going to come. Thank you all for your support all throughout this process and I hope to seeing everyone on Saturday!

Half Way Point

Hi everybody. I apologize for the very delayed post. I was tied up with swim team and then I went on vacation. We  are now well over the half way point for the project. We have dumped the oysters into the baskets and cleaned them really well one last time and it's all downhill from here. We had a maintenance day yesterday although it wasn't the usual. It was raining pretty hard and with the possibility of thunder and lightning we only inspected and repaired the floats that needed it the most. Our next maintenance day is on August 9th at 9:00 am at the usual location. As this is one of the last oyster days we have left I encourage those who haven't had a chance to participate to come out. Thanks for the continued support!

Last Saturday was our fifth maintenance day for the WeGrO project. We pulled out the baskets and scraped the barnacles and vegetation off of the baskets and let the oysters sun themselves for a while. The oysters are not quite big enough to be in the cages by themselves, but they are well on their way. We hope to remove them from their bags in two more weeks. Our next maintenance day is Thursday, June 26th at the usual location. I had to move it because I have a conflict next weekend. I thank you for your continued support and help. Stay tuned for more!

8 Weeks and Counting...

Hi everyone. I apologize that I haven't blogged in a while. But I just wanted to give a quick update on how the oysters are doing. Last Saturday, June 1st,  we had our third maintenance day where we paddled out in kayaks and canoes and checked on the oysters. As of right now they are between the size of a quarter and a half dollar coin and are almost ready to leave the grow-out bags. This Saturday, June 14th,  is our fourth maintenance day and we will be taking the oysters out of the bags. I strongly encourage people to come out and watch, help, and/or visit to see how big the oysters have gotten. We will meet in front of 425 Riverside Dr. Portsmouth, VA 23707 at 1:00 pm. Stay tuned for more!

Second Maintenance Day

Last Saturday was our second maintenance day. We pulled up the baskets and cleaned them as well as the grow-out bags. The oysters have already doubled their original size, and it has only been a month! I had some great help from fellows scouts and family. I am so grateful for all of the help and support thus far. Stay tuned for more!

Maintenance Day Saturday

Sent out by Cam earlier this evening via email: Hi everybody. I just wanted to remind you that the second oyster maintenance day is this Saturday from 9 am to roughly 10:30 am. We will be cleaning the grow-out bags and letting the oysters "sun" themselves for awhile. We will meet at425 Riverside Dr. like we did for the build day. Wear clothes that you do not mind getting wet and/or dirty and closed-toed shoes! Sun-block is also highly recommended. I would really appreciate your help. Thank you so much! 

Visiting My 24,000 Friends

Today was a very nice day out on the water for checking on the oysters. It was awesome riding out in the canoe to check on their progress and I am very thankful for the assistance of my father. The oysters have grown noticeably the last two weeks and will be ready to be in the cages by themselves before we know it. The next maintenance day is May 17th at 425 Riverside Dr. at 9:00 am. We will actually pull the floats and let the oysters "sun" for a while which helps to control the growth of harmful organisms that can affect the growth of the oysters. Please feel free to come out and help, and stay tuned for more details!

A few shots of us at work today:

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!

Approved!

Great News! The project was approved yesterday and I cannot wait to start working on it. Today I am preparing letters and brochures to send out to residents and possible donors and materials suppliers. Stay tuned for more details!

One Step Further

So excited to be one step closer. I dropped my project proposal off today for final review and approval. I just have to be patient and we'll hopefully hear something within the next week. Stay tuned!

My Project - An Introduction

The project is simple, really. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries need cleaning - oysters clean water - we need to grow oysters. Well, it's a little more involved than that.

The project I have proposed is to organize a group of homeowners along the shoreline of my neighborhood (Waterview, Portsmouth, VA) to "host" seed oysters for the summer. The oysters will be provided by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and will live in floating cages called Taylor floats tied to the piers of homeowners who agree to host floats. CBF is one of my two proposed project beneficiaries; the other is the Virginia Marine Resources Commission - they are responsible for maintaining the protected "sanctuary" reefs in the state.

The first phase of the project will be to get approval to move forward with the project, which I hope to get this week. Next, I need to enlist the help of the homeowners who have piers where the water is also deep enough for the floats to "float", keeping the oysters submerged. Once I know how many participants I will have I need to obtain the necessary materials and organize the construction of the floats. There's a link to the right with a video that explains the process. Once the floats are ready I will arrange to get the seed oysters and we'll deploy the floats for the summer. The floats need to be tended to about every two weeks from April through September - more on that later. In September we will harvest the oysters for transplant onto a sanctuary reef further down the river near the West Norfolk Bridge.

All that remains now is the final approval to move ahead. To learn more about my project beneficiaries and others doing important work to protect our marine environment, visit the links to the right.