Successful initial restoration of oyster habitat in the lower Hudson River Estuary, United States

Abstract

The eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica), has experienced dramatic declines throughout its range, and most U.S. states along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts have restoration programs. Oyster restoration in the Hudson River Estuary has been a focus of management agencies for over two decades. The present project was initiated in 2013 after sampling for replacement of the Tappan Zee bridge determined live oysters would be lost during bridge construction, thus requiring mitigation measures. Preliminary studies identified three areas for pilot studies to inform the design of full‐scale efforts. A pilot study involving deployment of oyster shell‐filled gabions and two styles of Reef Balls, found all substrates supported oyster recruitment and growth but there were higher oyster densities on gabions. Some of the gabions, however, failed structurally necessitating a need for new design. For full‐scale restoration, a total of 422 modified gabions and 881 Mini‐Bay style Reef Balls were deployed across three sites which totaled approximately 2.4 ha (6 ac) in seafloor area. Both substrate types were heavily colonized by oysters and several other species at all three sites, essentially duplicating the findings of the pilot study. The final monitoring event in 2020 indicated a total of approximately 5.8 million live oysters were on the substrates deployed in 2018. This mitigation effort was the largest oyster habitat restoration project in, or north of, the New York Harbor region in recent decades based on restoration area and several oyster metrics of early success.