People Behind a Stronger Coast: Eric Schrading and Katie Conrad

“The Fish and Wildlife Service office was in Pleasantville when Hurricane Sandy hit, right near Atlantic City. We closed the day before and took preparations. Where I live, we had high winds, some damage on the house. We just kept our family close and hoped to carry through the storm,” says Eric Schrading, pictured above with USFWS biologist Katie Conrad at Gandy’s Beach, New Jersey. Photo: Steve Droter

Located on the Delaware Bay side of the New Jersey coast, Gandy’s Beach was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Sandy. “Most of the houses here were completely flooded. In some cases there was so much erosion that a house was undermined and had to come down, or had to be abandoned,” says Schrading. Photo: Steve Droter

In the wake of Sandy, federal funding helped fuel efforts to build a better natural defense system. “There’s a Nature Conservancy preserve here, and we knew they were interested in taking action. They had a ‘shovel-ready project,’” says Schrading, pictured at right with Conrad (left) and Moses Katkowski (center), Coastal Projects Manager at The Nature Conservancy. “Partnerships are really crucial, and the important thing was having a plan in place.” Photo: Steve Droter

The partners, together with the help of volunteers, built over 3,000 feet of living shoreline oyster reefs. “Waves hit the living shoreline and the wave energy gets dissipated over the structure. That’s different from bulkheads or sea walls, where the energy is not dissipated – what they do instead is basically take all that energy and force it down, which causes continual erosion,” explains Schrading. Photo: Steve Droter

The reefs are made of concrete blocks, similar to interlocking LEGOs, and filled with bags of oyster or clam shells. Says Conrad, “The oyster shells come from Dock’s Oyster Bar in Atlantic City – The Nature Conservancy goes there every week or so and picks up oysters from the restaurant and brings them to a site to cure for a few months before they’re bagged. The clam shell is sourced from LaMonica Fine Foods in Millville, NJ. And the spat (baby oysters) are natural, they are already in the water here at Gandy’s.” Photo: Steve Droter

“The long-term goal is that these castles get covered with oysters and barnacles and a lot of other marine life,” says Schrading. “So once we’ve created this foundation, more and more marine life will continue to grow on it and it will be a self-sustaining reef system. That’s the key – you can build this and then walk away and have it be self-sustaining, versus constantly going in every 5 or 10 years to rebuild the structure.” Photo: Steve Droter

“Coir logs (pictured) help by stabilizing the marsh edge,” says Conrad. “Coir is a material made out of coconut and it’s good for working in salt marshes because it’s water resistant and doesn’t degrade quickly in salt water. We place the coir logs in the marsh to accumulate sediment behind and then we can plant marsh plants in the sediment and expand the marsh.” Photo: Steve Droter

“The commercial areas here are driven by bay men – people who work on the bay and make their living on the bay, oyster dredging, going out getting crabs or clams,” says Schrading. “Gandy’s Beach itself is a recreational community, some long-term residents, some who use it as a summer place. It’s a pretty close-knit community.” Photo: Steve Droter

Delaware Bay coastal areas like Gandy’s Beach are important for birds – from red knots and black rails to harriers, raptors and waterfowl. “We want to build up the beach areas to make them better for horseshoe crab spawning and shorebird foraging for red knots – anyplace where horseshoe crabs spawn and produce eggs and can feed red knots on their trip north is important,” says Schrading. Photo: Steve Droter

“Sandy was the biggest storm I’ve been in,” says Conrad. “It made me realize how important these [natural] structures are in helping to enhance habitat but also protect communities. Traditional hard structures that are used for reducing shoreline erosion don’t provide habitat and they don’t absorb wave energy so they can cause further erosion. I think these [natural] structures should be used more.” Photo: Steve Droter

“It’s scary, especially when you think about climate change. It’s not fun living through a hurricane. A lot of people got really hurt, but it may be worse in the future,” says Schrading. “One thing I’ve learned about climate change is, you have a lot more energy with warming climates, a lot more energy in the system. And with more energy that means more intensity and higher frequency of storms, so that’s something to think about.” Photo: Steve Droter

It’s a windy day at Gandy’s Beach, on the Delaware Bay side of the New Jersey coast, and everyone is having a hard time keeping their hats on. The waves are choppy, kicking up plenty of surf – the perfect weather for witnessing the benefits of the living shoreline oyster reef recently built here.

“When a wave hits, there are a lot of nooks and crannies in the reef that dissipate the wave throughout the whole structure or deflect it to the sides or down,” explains Eric Schrading, supervisory biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s field office in New Jersey. “But none of that energy is forced into one particular direction, and that’s what the key is behind these – there’s a variety of directions that the wave energy can be dissipated.”

Schrading is standing on the shore with fellow FWS biologist Katie Conrad and Nature Conservancy partner Moses Katkowski. They are some of the key players behind the living shoreline project at Gandy’s Beach to repair and build coastal resiliency in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The project is funded with $880,000 from the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013.

The living shoreline oyster reef, located just offshore, creates a natural defense system against the ongoing erosion and flooding that plague this coastline and community. Historical records indicate the Gandy’s Beach shoreline has eroded by 500 feet since the 1930s – and, with climate change bringing more frequent and intense storms and rising seas, the rate of erosion is likely to pick up.

“All the wave energy goes up on the beach or, where there’s little beach, it hits the marsh mostly at the roots,” explains Schrading. “So it just keeps hitting over and over again, and creates this scalloping effect where it takes away the soil underneath the vegetation, the vegetation then slumps in and you have continued erosion.”

Since 2014, the partners – along with help from dozens of volunteers – have built more than 3,000 feet of living shoreline oyster reefs along the coast at Gandy’s. Once in place, the structures recruit new oysters and eventually build up to be a self-sustaining reef system.

“We’ve been surprised at how many oysters have been recruited since we started this project,” says Conrad. “We put out pilot reefs in the summer of 2014 and they accumulated a lot of oysters.”

Hurricane Sandy dealt a massive blow to Gandy’s Beach and surrounding areas, so making this coastline more resilient to future storms is crucial. The living shoreline protects about one mile of sandy beach and adjacent salt marsh and is projected to reduce incoming wave energy by up to 40 percent.

“Maybe with major hurricanes these structures themselves won’t do much, because everything’s going to be under water, the structures will be 12 feet underwater,” acknowledges Schrading.

“But on days like today you see their value because you have a strong fetch that comes across the bay, and the first thing that it hits is the sandy beach or the marsh areas. But if you have these living structures in place, it basically takes that energy out of the wave before it hits the beach – it reduces a lot of wave force, which causes erosion in the first place.”

This is the fourth in a series of photo slideshows highlighting the people who have been working to defend their coastal ecosystems against storms in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. In previous weeks we have looked at Matt Whitbeck and Miles Simmons, combating climate change in the Chesapeake Bay, Julie Devers, assessing fish barriers and culverts in Maryland, and Kevin Holcomb and Amy Ferguson building living shorelines at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

You can view the continuation of this series and other news regarding our restoration and recovery projects on our website.

Students in the Field: Lending Hands to Living Shorelines

The next generation of conservationists are getting a head-start in environmental stewardship thanks to Project PORTS — Promoting Oyster Restoration Through Schools, an education and community-based oyster restoration program supported by Rutgers University’s Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory.

East Windsor Middle School student and families

For three days in early April, 8th grade students of East Windsor Middle School in Broad Brook, Connecticut, along with their parents and siblings, visited Cape May, New Jersey, to participate in Project PORTS. The interactive field trip included exploration, reflection, and action both in the classroom and out in the field.

“Some students learn best by listening, others by watching and some by doing — we were able to hit all aspects of learning through reinforcement in this program,” said Jenny Paterno, Program Coordinator at Rutgers University. “With this three day program, we could really bring a diverse suite of experiences to the students.”

The adventure began at the Nature Center of Cape May, where students received a simplified introduction to estuarine ecology, oyster biology and ecological restoration. The next morning, families joined staff from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rutgers University, and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary to help install oyster reef breakwaters on Gandy’s Beach along the Delaware Bay in New Jersey. The students were able to apply some of the new knowledge gathered the day before to hands-on work in the field, and continued to build upon those new concepts throughout the day.

“The oyster reef structure will serve to slow down wave energy and reduce erosional forces while providing enhanced habitat for oysters, ribbed mussels, and a suite of other species,” said Paterno.

At the Gandy’s Beach project site, students worked together to pass oyster bags from one set of hands to the next, like an assembly line, to place them into position to form the breakwater structure. The brigade proved to be an efficient method to move the bags across the beach in an all-hands-on-deck style.

Shell brigade!

The materials used to create the shell bags are locally-sourced and New Jersey native. Project partner TNC collects clam and oyster shells from restaurants during scheduled weekly pickups in Atlantic City, and also receives donated surf clam shells from a local processing plant in Millville, New Jersey. The mollusk shells are then “cured” and distributed to schools where students construct the bags. Project PORTS works with over ten schools per year, primarily local students from Cumberland County, New Jersey.

The last stop for the East Windsor students was at the Rutgers University Aquaculture Innovation Center (AIC) in Cape May where various stations were set up for students to explore. Families learned about the culture of marine animals, tested their skill at shucking an oyster, examined oyster anatomy and viewed live oyster larvae and developing fish eggs.

In addition to learning about oysters, the students and their families were helping out with innovative coastal restoration work: building a living shoreline.  Living shorelines incorporate a variety of structural and organic materials, such as sand or aquatic vegetation, to create a natural shoreline that protects and stabilizes the coast while providing habitat for native species.

The efforts of these students are part of a larger project. In 2013, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was awarded $880,000 from Hurricane Sandy resilience funds through Department of the Interior towards a living shoreline project at Gandy’s Beach. The project includes construction of 3,000 feet of living shoreline to restore the salt marsh and adjacent uplands. This work will improve the ability of the beach and neighboring communities to withstand future storm surges and coastal erosion, all while helping to stabilize the decreasing oyster population and enhance habitat for migratory birds, fish, and nearshore marine species.

Learning about oyster biology

Harvesting local oyster shells

Oyster shucking 101

The project is scheduled to be completed by November 8, 2016. Monitoring will continue for two years after the living shoreline is completed.

“[The project] will help stabilize approximately 3,000 feet of beach and tidal marsh shoreline,” said Katie Conrad, fish and wildlife biologist. “Ongoing monitoring will measure how well the oysters recruit on the different structures, so future restoration projects can benefit from what we have learned.”

Since the birth of the Gandy’s Beach living shoreline project in 2013, TNC and Project PORTS have involved several thousand local students in the ecological construction effort through the construction of shell bags as well as hands-on experience at the project site. To date, this reef has provided habitat for more than 20 million oysters and counting, according to Paterno. Even while only partially installed, the reefs have begun to provide habitat to young oysters.

The East Windsor Middle School students were able to embark on this stewardship adventure at Gandy’s Beach thanks to funding received from Pratt and Whitney’s Green Power Grant.

The benefits of educating future generations on environmental protection and awareness are more important now than ever. And when that education coincides with the enhancement of critical areas of coastal habitat— that’s a double victory.

Building Castles to Fight Sea-Level Rise

No, we’re not talking about putting up walls and towers and turrets.

We’re talking about building homes for baby oysters. (Awww.) Out of LEGO-like cement blocks.

Sounds like everything is awesome, doesn’t it?

Well, not quite.

A completed array of oyster castles at Chincoteague NWR. Credit: TNC.

In the mid-Atlantic region, water levels are rising at rates three to four times the global average for sea-level rise. Places like Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and the entire Virginia coast are smack in the middle of this zone.

One innovative and natural method for combating the impacts of sea-level rise is to build oyster reefs to help buffer waves and create a better marine habitat.

Volunteers and project partners have been doing just that at Chincoteague NWR. Over multiple days in April and May, volunteers donned their waders and rolled up their sleeves to assemble thousands of cement blocks into oyster castles at two sites. These castles form the foundation of the oyster reefs.

Helping hands assemble castles to create oyster reefs at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Credit: Chelsi Burns/USFWS.

“The oyster reefs will provide natural benefits such as filtering water and nutrients and promoting sediment uptake, so they’re vital to our marine areas,” says Kevin Holcomb, USFWS wildlife biologist at Chincoteague NWR.

“But there is also growing scientific evidence that coastal habitats such as oyster reefs, tidal salt marshes and sea grass meadows can offer cost-effective risk reduction in the face of rising sea levels and future impacts.”

Watch a video of the project and see a photo slideshow (from Delmarva Now).

How does it work?

First, crushed oyster shells are laid down as a “bed” under the castle blocks. Oysters will settle on these beds and the spat (baby oysters) will cling to the castles, growing up the vertical columns. The castles weigh around 30 pounds each with windows for water to flow through. The whole system creates a functional habitat for oysters and other marine life, including fish like striped bass. And it provides a natural buffer to oncoming waves, reducing their impact on the shoreline.

Jenny Young hands of a castle block to Jenny Miller. Credit: Danny White/TNC.

When finished, there will be an estimated 1,400 feet of living shoreline oyster reefs at Tom’s Cove and 2,050 feet in Assateague Bay – two sites that were battered by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. (See photos of the damage.)

Using natural methods of coastal protection like oyster reefs, living shorelines and tidal marshes is a high priority for the USFWS. With $167 million in funding from the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, USFWS is working on over 70 projects to restore areas hit hard by Hurricane Sandy and build in resiliency to help protect coastlines against future storms and the impacts of sea-level rise.

Our awesome partners in this work include The Nature Conservancy, the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, the National Park Service, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

Read a press release about the work.

Oyster spat. Credit: CSIRO Marine Research