Did you know that one adult oyster filters 2.5 gallons of water per hour?
Last Friday 3/21/2025, SC BHA met and helped SCDNR build Manufactured Wire Reefs (MWR) for the SCORE program. The SC BHA team were able to make 15 MWRs. With each MWR recruiting about 7000 oysters or so with 105,000 oysters recruited, each oyster filtering x 2.5 gallons of water per hour = 262,5000 gallons of water per hour. Multiply that by 24 hours in a day = 6,300,000 gallons of water per day!!!!
The purpose of the SCORE program is to restore and enhance oyster habitat by planting recycled oyster shells in the intertidal environment to form new, self-sustaining oyster reefs. This community-based habitat restoration project is an important endeavor because oysters play a significant ecologic and economic role in South Carolina; however, oyster populations are declining. It is important for the community to understand how oysters improve water quality, control erosion, and provide habitat for other commercially-important shellfish and fish species by learning about their biology and the human activities that can influence their well being. Oysters are a keystone species in SC coastal waters, and these reefs provide critical habitat to restore them. Oysters are a vital component to clean waters, and the reefs help build living shorelines. Living shorelines are the best defense against erosion in our intertidal areas. They trap sediment, which gives plants like Spartina grass a place to grow, which then in turn increases intertidal area resilience to hurricanes by mitigating erosion and coastal flooding.
About South Carolina BHA
Approximately 88% of South Carolina is privately owned, the 12% of remaining lands that are public are of great importance to the wildlife, as well as the outdoorsmen and women in this state. This group is very aware of the issues at the local, state, an