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Staff photo by Brian Freskos
James Galloway, 56, a licensed commercial fisherman from Brunswick County, dumps a bucket of shucked oyster shells near the marsh grass on Lollipop Bay on Monday. Each bucket weighs roughly 55 lbs. Galloway, with the help of his son, Steven Galloway, 21, will have likely dumped 260 such buckets by Tuesday, earning $520 in less than two-day’s work. |
Glistening with sweat and tanned like copper statues, Steven Galloway and his father, James Galloway, spent most of their sweltering Monday afternoon near Wrightsville Beach’s Lollipop Bay, spilling buckets full of shucked oyster shells along the marsh grass and tidal creeks.
Shell fishermen from Brunswick County, the Galloways are taking part in a joint federally funded, public-private initiative with a $5 million budget. The idea is to provide fishermen a measure of cash flow during an uncertain economic time, while simultaneously restoring habitat to shore up ecosystems and replenish oyster stocks for later harvest.
As part of this effort, the father-son pair is charged with planting 260 bushels of oyster shells beneath the Lollipop’s waters. The Galloways will receive $2 per bushel—each of which weighs roughly 55 pounds—earning $520 for two day’s work.
“It gives them an assured paycheck for a certain amount of shell,” said Ted Wilgis, the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s education coordinator. Their paycheck will come signed by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, which has partnered with the federation, a private nonprofit, to administer the federal funding and plant oyster habitat using shells or limestone marl—types of reef material called cultch—in state coastal waters.
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Staff photo by Brian Freskos
Oyster shells sit outside the Wrightsville Beach Public Works Department on Monday awaiting fishermen who will later dump them around the marshes of Lollipop Bay to replenish oyster populations. |
“All we have to do is load them up on a boat, carry them out and dump ‘em,” Steven Galloway, 21, said with a southern drawl, as he hauled a bushel bucket of oyster shells from Lollipop’s shore to his father’s skiff. “It couldn’t get . . . better than that…This is like a bonus.”
Wilgis said the first phase of this state-wide project began earlier this year in the Pamlico Sound area, where fishermen distributed roughly 21,000 bushels of oyster shells, building 48 acres of oyster reef.
Since then it has traveled into southeastern North Carolina, where an additional 20,000 bushels will be planted to raise the total reef acreage to more than 50, Wilgis said, in what is likely the largest such collaborative effort in state history. Onslow County’s Stump Sound area received 18,000 of those bushels. Middle Sound, where work began around Lollipop Bay on Monday, will get the remaining 2,000 bushels.
In addition to providing habitat for oyster larvae to thrive, the larger ecosystems profit off these reefs in a variety of ways, Wilgis said. Small organisms, juvenile fish and crabs can find refuge among the shells. And later, large fish species tend to draw themselves toward the reef in search of food.
Additionally, oyster reefs act as a natural filtration system, improving nearby water quality. And when placed near the shoreline, the reefs also help mitigate erosion, said Dr. Martin Posey, chair of the Biology and Marine Biology Department in the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Before oyster dumping began, researchers and students from UNCW collected baseline samples in Stump Sound and White Oak River so they can later measure reef development and how oysters function to support fisheries and ecosystems. Posey, who is one of this project’s leading researchers, said he hopes the monitoring will confirm nearly two decades of study on best practices for restoring oyster-based ecosystems, an important sustainable fishery practice.
What’s more, says Phillip Smith, 51, a fisherman based out of Carolina Beach who also worked around Lollipop Bay on Monday, the project is a win-win for people seeking a livelihood in his industry. Added to the direct payment for creating the reef, Smith expects to earn revenue harvesting the oysters in a few years time.
“It will be nice to add these shells because I know it works,” he said, loading a bushel bucket into his boat. “It will grow like wildflowers.”
Officials said the division selected 72 fishermen statewide to work on this project, all of whom were vetted through an application process.
Work on Middle Sound begins at the Wrightsville Beach Public Works Department, where a mound of oyster shells several feet high lies on the grass. Bushel buckets are loaded onto pallets and moved by a front-end loader to the banks, where the fishermen have their boats anchored. Buckets are loaded one at a time. Several dozen fill the each boat for every trip out to the marsh.
Stephen Taylor, a shellfish biologist for the division of marine fisheries, said he trusts the work will be completed by the end of this week, but that timeline hinges largely on tidal movements. Fishermen can’t dump during low tides. Their boats would run aground and they’d be forced to haul buckets along the muddy marshland by foot.
Because of this initiative, Steven Galloway anticipates a bountiful oyster harvest for years to come. He says overfishing has, at times, forced him to abandon certain spots.
“Here in the future, it will open up these areas,” he said, pointing to Lollipop Bay. “That’s the best part about it.”
The bay, like the rest of these sites, will close for the next four years so oyster populations can replenish, Wilgis said. Hook and line fishing, however, will remain open.
Tomorrow, the project team is hosting a media day. Stay tuned for more coverage.
