Diners’ Discarded Shells Help Establish New Oyster Colonies

A pile of oyster, clam, and whelk shells drying in the sun in Port Republic, N.J. The shells are collected from restaurants in Atlantic City, dried, and placed into the Mullica River, where they become the foundation for new oyster colonies as free-floating baby oysters attach to them and start to grow. AP Photo/Wayne Parry

Port Republic, N.J.—Call it the seafood circle of life: Shells discarded by diners are being collected, cleaned, and dumped into waterways around the country and the world, where they form the basis of new oyster colonies.

One of the latest such projects is taking place in Atlantic City, where a casino and two other restaurants are saving the shells left over from their diners. The shells are then collected by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and workers and volunteers with Rutgers and Stockton universities and the Jetty Rock Foundation load them on barges and dump them into the Mullica River.