The Nature Conservancy & Partners Announce Completion of the Pensacola East Bay Oyster Habitat Restoration Project

by Morgan Cole

thirteen years after the launch of what would become the Florida Nature Conservancy's (FNC) largest oyster reef restoration project to date, FNC representatives and partner organizations involved in assisting the agency establish 33 new oyster reefs in Santa Rosa's East and Blackwater bays, gathered in March to celebrate the completion of the project.

A special recognition event was held on March 24 for invited guests and local media, where FNC representatives and project partners spoke about the project’s success and provided guided boat tours of the completed oyster reefs.

Historically oysters have flourished throughout the Pensacola Bay system, but over time sediments washed away from dirt roads, coastal erosion, pollution and negligent harvesting practices, have resulted in the breakdown of a nearly 15,000-acre ecosystem.

Anne Birch, the Florida Ocean and Coast Strategy director for the Nature Conservancy and one of the chief architects for the reef restoration project, explained that the once abundant oyster population made restoration project planners confident that the East Bay system could be once again be revived, however, in order for the project to work, the oyster larvae would need some sort of surface or base to latch on to.

"We knew we had a good place. We just needed substrate," Birch said. Water quality testing that has been ongoing over the course of the project's life helped the Nature Conservancy decide that a 6.5 mile stretch of water running from north to south across Escribano Point would be the best place to begin restoration efforts.

The coastal engineering firm Jacobs was brought in to manage design and construction of the project. Company representative David Stejskal said that 61,000 tons, or 122 million pounds, of limestone rock and recycled oyster shells were used to construct the 33 new reefs.

"It was a very exciting project for us. Building and restoring a resilient ecosystem and solving the challenges of this project was fun and rewarding," Stejskal said. "It was like a magnet. People came from all over the world because they wanted to be a part of it."

After gathering input from multiple stakeholders, Jacobs Engineer Matt Davenport said the hardest part of making the reef project a reality was "making it constructible."

Crews from CrowderGulf, who oversaw installation, were working in 3 to 4 feet of water, with their work schedules planned in accordance with the daily winds and tides, company representative Drew Sprinkle explained. Sprinkle also said other factors, such as storms, COVID-19 and Skanska's barges colliding with the Pensacola Bay Bridge, all impacted the overall timeline of work.

"Live oysters were found on our reefs 10 months after those reefs were put in the water," Birch announced at the March recognition event. "As the project matures, there will be thousands of oysters, each capable of filtering up to 50 gallons of water a day."

The completed project features five oyster reefs constructed to the north of Escribano Point and the remaining 28 to its south. As oysters populate the reefs, they work as a keystone species, cleaning the water and providing an architecturally complex structure that will attract fish and other marine life to the reefs to further restore the health of the bays.

A firm known as WSP conducted pre-construction monitoring of the areas around the reef and will continue to do so for up to five years. She also explained that the reefs will serve to break up wave action, helping prevent erosion at Escribano Point.

The 33 oyster reefs recognized at the March event will not be open for harvesting; however, future plans call for more reefs to be constructed. According to executive director of the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program Matt Posner, plans include the restoration of another 1,400 acres of local estuaries over the next decade.

The restoration project is funded by a $15 million grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (NFWF GEBF) through funding from the criminal settlement of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The successful completion of the oyster habitat restoration project reflects the long-term and collaborative effort of a diverse team of partners, including the oyster fishing community and a technical working group—a committee formed by TNC to provide feedback and expertise on the project design and monitoring.

Project participants include Eglin Air Force Base, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Aquaculture Division, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Santa Rosa County, Northwest Florida Water Management District and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

For complete details on the Pensacola East Bay Oyster Habitat Restoration Project and to learn more about the Florida Nature Conservancy, visit nature.org/florida.