Local Restaurants and Environmental Activists Turn Shells into Solutions
Oysters and their reef habitats were once plentiful in Sarasota Bay, but both have been decimated by environmental pressures such as water pollution and shell mining. With the wild oyster population down 90 percent within the last century, our local waters have been deprived of the benefits of this shellfish’s super-powers. A single mature oyster is capable of filtering harmful microorganisms (including the ones that cause red tide) and excess nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen (the agents of algae blooms) from up to 50 gallons of seawater per day. Their cleanup efforts promote the clear waters where sea grasses thrive and infuse the ocean with life-giving oxygen.
“Oysters are a keystone species because they also provide habitat for a lot of little guys—barnacles, worms, tunicates, and crabs,” says Dominic Marino, president and CEO of Oyster Boys Conservation. “An oyster reef is like a snack bar for fish.”
It’s a sun-drenched early-June day in South Sarasota. Marino, his brother Vince, and a handful of their best buddies are clambering over boardwalks and docks at the marina in Pelican Cove, fastening underneath them yards of two-by-fours that trail with handmade garlands of oyster shells. Underneath the sweat, there’s a lot of smiling going on.
“I love those guys,” Marino, age 30, says of his crew. “And I just love being on the water, because Vince and I grew up on it.” Marino’s college education and career took him away from Florida’s Gulf Coast for much of the last decade. “I saw a lot of the country—the biggest cities and smallest towns—not just passing through, like, living in the Southeast and Midwest for months on end.”
He pauses to watch a ray of sun dance over the ripples marking where a sheepshead browses around the moorings. “We got a spot, right? Let’s protect it. That’s our first good reason to get out here. The second good reason is to see my brother and my buddies, and to hang out and connect with others in the community, too.”
Oyster Boys Conservation (OBC) is in its third year of assembling and installing vertical oyster gardens (VOGs) around Sarasota and Venice. When Edible Sarasota first shared OBC’s story in our Fall 2022 issue, they had recently hit a milestone of putting 100 VOGs in the water. Supported by a grant from the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, the Pelican Cove VOG project is OBC’s largest so far, with more than 700 gardens suspended below the docks.
OBC has also initiated partnerships with local restaurants on an oyster shell recycling program. Instead of pitching out the remnants of an oyster platter, kitchen staff sort shells into 55-gallon drums donated by Geier’s Sausage Kitchen, which OBC picks up and cures before stringing them up into VOGs. If you eat oysters at Walt’s Fish Market (Sarasota), Dockside Waterfront Grill (Venice), Brine Seafood & Raw Bar (Sarasota), Captain Eddie’s Seafood (Nokomis), or Lefty’s Oyster & Seafood Bar (Sarasota), you’re supporting one of OBC’s “ShellCyclers.”
“Those of us in local restaurants understand the importance of the water,” says Anne Rollings, executive director of communications and business development for Watershed Hospitality Group, Lefty’s parent company. “After you’ve been through a few red tides or a few bad hurricanes, the health of our coastal waters is kind of what rules our universe.” Before Lefty’s opened for business, Watershed Hospitality Group gave OBC a financial boost by purchasing bushels of OBC’s oyster shells for the native landscape design out on the patio.
While OBC soldiers on with support from local businesses, Marino hopes that more individuals will invest in their cause. The Oyster Boys are poised to multiply their impact with a few hires of key administrative staff and some trucks with topped-up gas tanks.
“Private donations are what’s really needed to support outreach programs, labor hours, and materials, since we are growing from a backyard hobby to a functioning countywide business,” Marino says.
In the meantime, much like the humble oyster, OBC has taken a slow and steady approach to growth—and the organization’s discipline and determination have drawn attention from community changemakers. This year, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation (GCCF) awarded OBC a $7,000 grant and provided nonprofit development support, including assistance with board management and guidance on scaling up the organization sustainably.
“Most of the people that I have been working with over the last four or five decades on issues such as water quality, land conservation, threatened and endangered species—like me, they’re in their 60s and even 70s and 80s,” says Jon Thaxton, GCCF’s director of policy and advocacy. “When I saw the Oyster Boys, I saw the next generation of people who are going to carry the mantle for improving the natural environment in Sarasota County.”
