ReClam The Bay To Offer 'Food, Fellowship and Information' To Community

Kicking off another season in public education and outreach, ReClam The Bay, a volunteer arm of a nonprofit Barnegat Bay Shellfish Restoration Program, is inviting all members of the shore community to an open house event on Tuesday, April 24 at 7 p.m., the Ocean County Agricultural Extension Center, at 1623 Whitesville Road (Route 527) in Toms River.

The open house on Tuesday will present "food, fellowship and information" on how everyone can help put back into the bay one million clams and almost half a million oysters, said Charles Brandt, spokesman for ReClam the Bay.

"We need folks with all kinds of skills and energy," Brandt said.

The organization, which was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection, extends the invitation to everyone who is concerned about the health of our waters and wants to help -- including area science teachers.

"Awareness and education are a big part of what we do," said president of ReClam the Bay Rick Bushnell, who lives in Surf City. "We're also doing a thing that we call 'shellfish in the classroom, where we work with local and statewide elementary and middle schools. We help them bring some of the science into the classroom, but also math and writing skills
as well."

In addition to its outreach activities, one of ReClam The Bay's most important functions revolves around growing shellfish, to be deposited back into local waters.

The RCTB volunteers work in a two-year cycle, which starts in early July, when local hatcheries sell or donate shellfish seeds that are no larger than poppy seeds on your bagel, Bushnell said. The seeds grow in large bay water tanks in the organization's eight facilities all around the bay. As the shellfish grow, volunteers measure them and present them with algae.

Eventually, in the fall, last year's yearlings, ready to go home, will be deposited in the bay and protected from predators by mesh screens.

Thus "re-claming" the bay can eventually help us "reclaim" this vital ecosystem, Bushnell said.

"About 90 percent (of creatures) that live in the ocean at one point or another are directly related to an estuary and the bay," Bushnell said. "Because that’s where the fresh water and the salt water mix. It provides shelter and protection to varied species, those life forms can't do well in the open ocean. So ecologically, it’s an extremely important piece of real estate."

ReClam The Bay and other organizations it works with aim to reach the public, so more people would take ownership of their estuaries.

"All of our coastline, including the bay and the ocean, is under stress, because of the population growth," Bushnell said. "We need to have informed and active citizenry to improve and to further reduce the amount of damage that we do to our environment."

Shellfish are vital to the health of the bay, as they eat algae, and thus remove nitrogen from water, Bushnell explained.

"Where there are healthy and large shellfish populations, the water quality is improved by their filter feeding," he said.

Still, Bushnell added, don't count on the clams to solve all the problems we've created.

"They’ll take care of things in scale," Bushnell said, "but what happened is, humans have put things so far over the scale, that they need a tipping back."

For more information about the organization, and how you can help, visit http://www.reclamthebay.org/ or call the Rutgers Cooperative Extension office at (732)349-1152.