S3 E4: “If the world is to be saved, it will be saved by those who care deeply for very small places.” We’ve heard about some of the giant resilience efforts happening in New York; now it’s time to think a little bit smaller and talk about... oysters! Not only are oysters a delicious treat, but they’re also fundamental to the health and sustainability of New York’s waterway ecosystem. To learn all about their environmental superpowers, Christina joins the team from grassroots organization City Island Oyster Reef for a day out on the water. By partnering with other nonprofits, the Department of Environmental Conservation, local restaurants, and a crew of dedicated volunteers, CIOR is working to restore oyster populations, create new reefs, and allow these amazing little creatures to do what they do best.
S3 E4: “If the world is to be saved, it will be saved by those who care deeply for very small places.”
We’ve heard about some of the giant resilience efforts happening in New York; now it’s time to think a little bit smaller and talk about... oysters! Not only are oysters a delicious treat, but they’re also fundamental to the health and sustainability of New York’s waterway ecosystem. To learn all about their environmental superpowers, Christina joins the team from grassroots organization City Island Oyster Reef for a day out on the water. By partnering with other nonprofits, the Department of Environmental Conservation, local restaurants, and a crew of dedicated volunteers, CIOR is working to restore oyster populations, create new reefs, and allow these amazing little creatures to do what they do best.
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[00:00:32] Mike Carew: [Motorboat engine] Today's a beautiful day to be on the water anywhere.
[00:00:42] Christina Thompson: That's Captain Mike.
[00:00:44] Mike Carew: You don't have to twist my arm too hard.
[00:00:46] Christina Thompson: Mike Carew. And he, and a few of his colleagues, were gracious enough to take me out on their boat today off of City Island, a skinny little island at the Western end of Long Island Sound. And an extremely special place. Oh my God.
[00:00:59] Sally Connolly: Isn't it fabulous?
[00:01:00] Christina Thompson: This is beautiful. And if you're an Andy Garcia fan, they even made a movie about it. We're out here today because I want to learn about:
[00:01:09] VOX POP: ...Oysters...
[00:01:10] VOX POP: ...Oysters...
[00:01:10] VOX POP: ...Millions of oysters...
[00:01:11] VOX POP: ...A billion oysters...
[00:01:12] VOX POP: ...Little baby oysters...
[00:01:13] VOX POP: ...Oysters the size of your head...
[00:01:15] Christina Thompson: Oysters! Almost everyone I've spoken to thus far in this series has mentioned these little guys in one way or another as being, or having been, a huge cornerstone of New York's waterway ecosystem. So I'm tagging along with the experts today and joining a crew from City Island Oyster Reef to learn more about these fascinating creatures and the role they play in New York's sustainable future. I don't think we could have picked a better day, Captain Mike.
[00:01:42] Sally Connolly: This is a bit better than the rainy day.
[00:01:44] Christina Thompson: I'm Christina Thompson, and this is A Little Green Podcast.
[00:01:46] Sally Connolly: ...really chilly...like when we went out on Monday, it was so-- or Tuesday...
[00:02:02] Christina Thompson: Sally Connolly has lived on City Island for over 25 years. And here she is clarifying the difference between clam digger and mussel sucker, which is a very important distinction for City Islanders.
[00:02:13] Sally Connolly: A clam digger is an or-- a person who was born here on City Island and never left, and a muscle sucker is someone who moved to City Island. So even though I've been here for so long, and my youngest son was two months when we moved here, I'm still a mussel sucker.
[00:02:29] Christina Thompson: And what is he considered? Two months old...he's like...
[00:02:31] Sally Connolly: A mussel sucker. Even though he was...
[00:02:32] Christina Thompson: C'mon!
[00:02:33] Sally Connolly: Yes. He also didn't get the status of being a clam digger.
[00:02:38] Christina Thompson: I'm talking to Sally because she's the chair of the City Island Oyster Reef. She grew up sailing, so she has a really deep connection to the water.
[00:02:46] Sally Connolly: I really love it. I love the, the fish and the biodiversity that I was exposed to through sailing, so that's always been a passion of mine. The mission of the City Island Oyster Reef is to bring back oyster reefs to Western Long Island sound.
[00:03:01] Christina Thompson: They're doing this by actually creating new reefs. They partner with the Billion Oyster Project, another nonprofit that's bringing oysters back to New York Harbor. And City Island Oyster Reef engages their community by linking up with local schools, restaurants, and volunteers.
[00:03:16] Sally Connolly: We are a little grassroots organization, and we're very fueled by the community.
[00:03:21] Christina Thompson: I got in touch with Sally because City Island Oyster Reef is doing tangible, on the ground, or rather, in the water, work in their own backyard to restore the oyster populations that made City Island the place it is today. We'll get back to Sally shortly, but, in the meantime, she tells me I should speak with another longtime City Island resident to better understand how the oyster shaped City Island, and why it's so vital to bring them back today.
[00:03:46] Sally Connolly: She's an old friend of mine. She runs the nautical museum on City Island.
[00:03:51] Christina Thompson: And her name is Barbara Dolensek.
[00:03:53] Sally Connolly: I would personally call her the mayor of City Island because she's involved and runs so many organizations on the island. She's amazing.
[00:04:01] Christina Thompson: Is she– wait, wait. Is she a mussel sucker? Or she's?
[00:04:04] Sally Connolly: Yes, she is.
[00:04:05] Christina Thompson: Okay.
[00:04:06] Sally Connolly: Yes, she is.
[00:04:10] Barbara Dolensek: Uh, I've only been here about 47 years...
[00:04:14] Christina Thompson: So, of course, I had to give Barbara a call.
[00:04:16] Barbara Dolensek: For many years, of course, until the late 19th century, there was absolutely no way to get here except by boat.
[00:04:23] Christina Thompson: [Sea bird sounds] Before City Island was called City Island, the Lenape came to the island during the summer by canoe.
[00:04:29] Barbara Dolensek: We know they came here, and they fished for fish, presumably, but also for shellfish and left the shells in these piles.
[00:04:39] Christina Thompson: These piles are called middens -- basically, a dump site for shells.
[00:04:43] Barbara Dolensek: And so, City Island was known already for the richness of its oyster population.
[00:04:50] Christina Thompson: Dutch colonist, Adriaen Block, arrived in the early 1600s, beginning an era of European settlement that would radically alter the island and its ecosystem. [More seabird sounds]
[00:04:59] Christina Thompson: Oysters were plentiful.
[00:05:02] Barbara Dolensek: It was considered a demeaning job to go out and wa--, wade around at low tide, and dig up oysters, and then carry them back to the local restaurant.
[00:05:12] Christina Thompson: Back then, they weren't considered the delicacy that they are today.
[00:05:16] Barbara Dolensek: Oysters, like lobsters, were considered a poor man's food, but this very quickly changed.
[00:05:24] Christina Thompson: Lower Manhattan's Fulton Street Fish Market was established in the early 1800s, and, by 1850, much of the country's fish trade happened here. And this was a big reason oysters became so popular, like the ones from City Island.
[00:05:38] Barbara Dolensek: The oysters that were collected on a daily basis were put into these large cases or, or boxes that were along the shoreline on the east and the west side of the island, and then, once a week probably, we don't know for sure, these were taken down to the Fulton Street Fish Market. They were shucked and provided to the various restaurants. Suddenly the, the oysters were available and people picked up on them. Certain restaurants, Delmonico's, a number of important restaurants, simply said, "This is the latest thing."
[00:06:19] Christina Thompson: So, at this point, the oyster industry was thriving, thanks in large part to a ship builder named Orrin Fordham -- no relation to the university -- who came to the island in 1830.
[00:06:30] Barbara Dolensek: He had developed a system of building oyster reefs to enhance the local population of oysters.
[00:06:37] Christina Thompson: By spreading, or "planting" oyster shells on the bay floor, oyster larvae, also known as spat, would grow on the shells and be ready to harvest after a few years. This led to giant oyster reefs.
[00:06:50] Barbara Dolensek: And that became a very important part of what made City Island become the oyster capital, really, uh, during the middle of the, of the 19th century.
[00:07:01] Christina Thompson: Suddenly, oysters were THE lucrative business on City Island.
[00:07:05] Barbara Dolensek: Maybe 60 or 70 families on City Island were considered the equivalent of millionaires because of the amount of oysters that they provided to the Fulton Street Fish market. [Wave sounds]
[00:07:16] Christina Thompson: But if we learned anything from our history lesson earlier this season, we know what's coming next. By the 20th century, water quality had become so bad that marine life was barely able to survive. And today, less than 1% of peak oyster populations remain due to overharvesting, land filling, habitat destruction, pollution, disease, sedimentation, you name it. The oysters that do remain are not for eating.
[00:07:49] Barbara Dolensek: Many people come thinking that they're eating shellfish out of City Island waters. They're absolutely not. It's forbidden by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
[00:08:00] Christina Thompson: They're for something else. Something Sally, Barbara, and many of the City Island community members are working hard to accomplish.
[00:08:07] Sally Connolly: To clean the waters, to secure the local coastline and to educate the community about the importance of a marine ecosystem.
[00:08:17] Christina Thompson: Oysters are amazing.
[00:08:20] Sally Connolly: One single oyster can filter up to 50 to 55 gallons of water every day. They also create, sort of, a barrier, so in terms of storm surges, it protects the shoreline. They bring back biodiversity, so they're like a home, like, an oyster reef is a home to sea critters.
[00:08:47] Christina Thompson: Sally, I didn't bring my wellies. Is this going to be a problem? Okay, back to the boat. Sally invited me out with the City Island Oyster Reef team for an on-the-water tour of all the work that they're doing.
[00:09:00] Sally Connolly: We're going to see...
[00:09:01] Christina Thompson: What are we going to boat out to now? What are we going to see today?
[00:09:03] Sally Connolly: So when Mike's here, I want you, I want to show the two of you, um, the four sites that we have focused on...
[00:09:10] Christina Thompson: Okay.
[00:09:10] Sally Connolly: ...in terms of oyster restoration. Out of those four sites, we have two sites we've selected, um, for larger oyster reefs. I want to explain that and point out where that will be.
[00:09:21] Christina Thompson: Captain Mike Carew was there, of course, as well as Luna Placchi, their Community Outreach and Education Coordinator.
[00:09:27] Luna Placchi: Maybe get, like, us pulling the cage out, and you can get the sound of the shells, the oyster shells moving around. Um, and we can show you guys so you can touch, and hands on, and we can hopefully see some biodiversity and things like that. It's the tangible part of the, of the whole project.
[00:09:43] Christina Thompson: So we all climbed into Mike's boat.
[00:09:45] Mike Carew: Alright, so now I'm going to put the engine down [mechanical sounds] and uh...
[00:09:49] Christina Thompson: And we're off.
[00:09:49] Mike Carew: Yeah. [Boat engine noise] Has, uh, anybody else boaters here or anything? Have you been on a boat before? This is your first time. Okay, good.
[00:09:57] Christina Thompson: The process for restoring the oyster reefs starts with the restaurants.
[00:10:01] Luna Placchi: We partner with six local restaurants on City Island, and they give us their oyster and clamshells, uh, after they're done with it. So, if you are eating at, um, Seashore Restaurant, Seafood City, Sammy's Fish Box, Sammy's Shrimp Box, Johnny's Reef, and Tony's Pier on City Island, if you're eating oysters and clams there, just know that your shell is contributing to restoring our marine ecosystem here around City Island, um, last year...
[00:10:28] Christina Thompson: In 2022, the City Island Oyster Reef diverted 24,000 pounds of shells from the landfill. These shells are key to cleaning the water and making New York's waterways more resilient. Once the shells are diverted to City Island Oyster Reef, they go through a curing process for the year.
[00:10:45] Luna Placchi: Curing is basically just doing its own biological decomposition, getting rained on, sun bleached, um, uh, the insects come and eat off any, uh, organic material.
[00:10:56] Christina Thompson: After a year of curing, the crew sends the shells out to a marine hatchery. The shells are then returned with baby oysters, or spat, attached to them. These are called spat-on-shells, and they're ready to be planted using Orrin Fordham's method. About 10 or 15 minutes into the ride, we peeled off to check out one of their oyster crates, or, as they call it, their oyster research station.
[00:11:19] Luna Placchi: So we are now at one of our sites where we have our oyster cages, uh, at the dock, and we're going to pull it up, and check out our oysters, and how they're doing.
[00:11:29] Christina Thompson: Standing on the edge of the swaying dock, Luna pulls up the cage to show us some of the oysters that she's been monitoring.
[00:11:35] Luna Placchi: ...the cage. [Sounds of Luna pulling up an oyster cage] oh, we got a little surprise.
[00:11:41] Christina Thompson: Is that a sea snail? What is that?
[00:11:44] Luna Placchi: This one is... I think it might be a skillet fish.
[00:11:49] Christina Thompson: Just hanging out.
[00:11:50] Luna Placchi: He's just hanging out. He said, "Oh no, they found my hiding spot." Yeah. Yeah. So we're just going to send him on his way. He's just going to hang on...
[00:11:57] Christina Thompson: And just like that, Luna tosses the oyster cage back into the water. [Splashing sounds]
[00:12:00] Christina Thompson: See you guys later.. Once the spat-on-shells are back in the ocean, City Island Oyster Reef keeps close tabs on them.
[00:12:12] Sally Connolly: So, with that, we would pull up the cages every month and we're measuring the oysters to see how they're growing and, and really tracking the growth rate, also the mortality rate of the oysters. And at the same time, looking at the biodiversity and determining what's there, what's in the cage.
[00:12:30] Christina Thompson: Working off this research, Sally and her team plan to construct two pilot oyster reefs in 2024 with the cured shells.
[00:12:37] Sally Connolly: One's on the western side of the island, and one is on the eastern side. The area on the western side is near Tier Street, where there's been flooding. There's a coastal wetlands area there that needs protection, and so it isn't a hardened shoreline. It doesn't have a sea wall. It's a natural area. Building an oyster reef in that area certainly will protect it from storm surges.
[00:13:02] Christina Thompson: I love this project so much. It's such a clear and inspiring example of people in their own neighborhoods, in their own backyards, making the changes that they want to see.
[00:13:12] Sally Connolly: The Long Island Sound, for years, has been imperiled. It's turning the corner. There's a lot of work. It's getting better, stronger, and healthier, and we want to be part of that to clean up Long Island Sound.
[00:13:24] Christina Thompson: And they do such a good job of including and educating their community. Anyone can get involved today.
[00:13:30] Sally Connolly: People want healthy, clean water. That is important to them. I think they enjoy using the Sound, doing recreational things like fishing and sailing, and just boating, and that sort of thing, and they want to do something to help to make it healthier. And I also think people love being involved in a community activity. It's a way to make friends, to strengthen bonds, to understand where you live better. It gives people a feel-good feeling. It's sort of less theoretical and it's more hands-on and practical, and you can see the results so clearly.
[00:14:09] Christina Thompson: Before I say goodbye, Sally shared a couple quotes that really resonated with me.
[00:14:13] Sally Connolly: Exactly. In fact, Margaret Mead had a famous quote. It, it's basically:
[00:14:17] Christina Thompson: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." And from their website:
[00:14:26] Sally Connolly: "If the world is to be saved, it will be saved by those who care deeply for very small places."
[00:14:34] Christina Thompson: And this – THIS – is where we find the hope. Honestly, this quote has inspired a lot of what we're doing here on Season Three of A Little Green. So, over the next few episodes, we're going to hear from other New Yorkers who care deeply for their own small places. Next time we're headed to the South Bronx.
[00:14:53] Mychal Johnson: I see people rising. I see people working together.
[00:14:57] Christina Thompson: To learn more about City Island Oyster Reef, visit cioysterreef.org and check out alittlegreenpodcast.com, or head to avocadomattress.com to read more on our online magazine. A Little Green is an Avocado Green Brands podcast. This podcast was written and produced by Anna McClain, and myself, Christina Thompson. The music you heard is by Aaron Levison. And special thanks to Áine Pennello for additional production support.
[00:15:25] Sally Connolly: You are so welcome.
[00:15:29] Christina Thompson: The best day, honestly.
[00:15:31] Sally Connolly: It was really great.
[00:15:31] Christina Thompson: I'd love to–
[00:15:32] Sally Connolly: I'm so glad it was warm.
[00:15:33] Christina Thompson: I know. I'd like to come back when, like, without audio and just, like, hang.
[00:15:36] Sally Connolly: That'd be really fun. We would love that.
[00:15:38] Christina Thompson: You know, eat some oysters and hang.
[00:15:40] Sally Connolly: Really great. Yeah.
[00:15:41] Christina Thompson: Thank you so much guys.
[00:15:42] Sally Connolly: You are so welcome.
[00:15:44] Christina Thompson: This was awesome.
[00:15:44] Sally Connolly: Nice to meet you.
[00:15:45] Christina Thompson: Nice to meet-- oh, hugs. Hugs.
[00:15:47] Sally Connolly: In person.
[00:15:47] Christina Thompson: Honestly. I know.