How recycled oyster shells are helping the coastline

A genuinely fantastic movement has begun in a southern American city famous for its exemplary seafood scene. Recently, a collective of eateries in New Orleans have been recycling their usually discarded oyster shells in order to be used for building sea walls instead.

At Haar, we have always been committed to the longevity and sustainability of this planet we call home, so we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw this genuinely incredible effort in a recent article published by the BBC.

While oysters are often served by the bucketload in New Orleans, most restaurants usually discard their shells after use. That was until now.

The once-thrown-away shells are now being adopted to defend some coastal wetlands in the nearby area. The Louisiana wetlands are a crucial ecosystem. But, every one hundred minutes, an area around the size of a football field is sadly being washed away. Unfortunately, this leaves the region prone to flooding and hurricanes due to factors like rising sea levels or canal and levee building.

Kim Reyher from Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana notes that "with every hurricane season, we stand to lose. The land is slowly slipping into the water. The water is slowly rising, so we can't just sit here and expect to stay here without taking action."

To help mitigate this, a collection of restaurants around the New Orleans area have banded together to help with the issue at hand by creatively reusing their oyster shells.

Bourbon House's Dickie Brennan states that his restaurant has recycled upwards of seven hundred tonnes of oyster shells, with every single one salvaged being used in the incredible scheme.

The process involves local charity Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana taking the shells out to the edge of the wetlands and putting them against the banks to form a growing, living barrier.

Each oyster shell that is put into the water interestingly attracts baby oysters. The babies settle onto a shell, where they will grow, calling it home. Amazingly, the shells do not just attract oysters but also draw in other species, allowing fish and birds to feed on them in this unbelievable ecosystem.

While the work is labour-intensive and expensive (with 1.5 miles of the coastline being secured at the time of writing), another similar oyster reef built by the charity five years ago has aided in reducing the region's coastal erosion by a whopping fifty percent.

The ever-humble oyster has also long been known for improving water quality too. Even a single oyster can filter a mind-blowing fifty gallons of water in just one day. Utterly incredible if you ask us.

So, with the baby oysters settling into the shells around the Louisiana wetlands, this not only helps with the ongoing efforts to mitigate hurricanes and flooding in the region. But it also aids in improving the quality of the water by filtering the excess nutrients in it.

Naturally, these fantastic efforts have us thinking, would this work in the United Kingdom? We have yet to hear of such a thing but would be happy to help any charities looking to implement a project like this.

At Haar, we incorporate oysters into the incredible culinary journey the team takes you on. When you join us at the iconic Chef's Bar, you are presented with our oysters of the day alongside some other genuinely creative snacks to enjoy before you move to the dining area.

If you would like to reserve a table and sample some of our oyster offerings at the iconic Chef's Bar, please head to our bookings page now.