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Even in the shell-rich Lowcountry, about half the beds are gone.
The hope for saving theses tasty bivalves lies with leading-edge restoration efforts like those under way in South Carolina, according to a first-of-its-kind global assessment of oyster reefs. The Nature Conservancy report calls oyster reefs "one of, and likely the most, imperiled marine habitat on earth."
Beaufort County received one of the report's few "good" ratings -- meaning fewer than half of its oyster beds have been lost in the past 100 years.
The S.C. Department of Natural Resources reported last month it has been seeing results from its eight years of work to grow oysters in the county, including recent efforts to restore oyster reefs at Russ Point on Hunting Island and near the H.E. Trask Sr. Landing in Bluffton.
Charleston County received a "fair" rating from the report, indicating a loss from 50 percent to 90 percent of its beds.
The report this summer followed a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study last year that indicated nearly half the coral reef ecosystems in United States territory are in poor or fair condition, and the Caribbean Sea had lost half its coral systems in less than five years.
"I think oysters are going to start getting the attention that coral reefs did," said Joy Brown, a Nature Conservancy marine restoration specialist in Charleston.
Are oyster castles the answer?
The report, "Shellfish Reefs At Risk," blames the loss of oyster reefs on destructive fishing practices, coastal development and water pollution.
Oyster habitat in South Carolina has gradually declined over the past two decades. S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has closed about one-third of the state's 3,000 acres of oyster beds to harvesting because of pollution, including some in Beaufort County.
But the annual harvest has remained about the same, and DNR officials disagreed with the report findings.
"We don't think we're nearly so bad. Our stocks have been fairly stable the past couple of decades," said David Whitaker, DNR fisheries management director. "The numbers of our oysters are actually pretty good."
To increase oyster stocks, the Nature Conservancy has placed odd-looking, turret-like stacks of shell and concrete blocks along Jeremy Island on the Intracoastal Waterway near McClellanville. They are "oyster castles," a sort of substitute shell bed for oyster spat to attach and begin their own oyster reefs. Unlike recycled shell beds, which are prevalent in Beaufort County, the three-dimensional castles create a nooks-and-crannies habitat for oysters, crabs and other species.
The reefs also help control marsh erosion.
Similar results have been seen in Beaufort County with recycled beds, the DNR says. Marsh grass is growing back in areas that were once eroded. Oysters are multiplying. Shorelines are stabilizing. And new habitat is forming to a host a variety of marine species, such as fish, shrimp and crabs, according to DNR.
The Jeremy Island site is a pilot project that could be extended throughout the Lowcountry as well as elsewhere, rebuilding entire oyster reef ecosystems, if it works and grant money can be lured.
A need for shells
The castles aren't hard to come by, but recycled shells have been. Some 80,000 to 90,000 bushels of oysters are harvested in South Carolina each year.
Despite running a reef restoration program since the early 1990s, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources still has to buy about 60 percent of 30,000 bushels or so annually that are placed in the water to build new beds.
And budget cuts crimped the program this year -- only 28,000 bushels were planted.
In September, the conservancy and DNR will launch a restaurant shell recycling project with an $18,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which potentially could bring in that other 60 percent of shells, said Brown, of the Nature Conservancy. Restaurants use the majority of the oysters harvested, and she hopes at least 19 Charleston area restaurants will take part.
"It's something outside the box," she said, "something a lot of people haven't done before."
