BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (WLOX) – A special recycling initiative is helping bring an oyster reef back to life in South Mississippi.

Volunteers from Mississippi Power and Beau Rivage partnered with the Nature Conservancy of Mississippi and Land Trust for the Save our Shells initiative.

In 2022, 44,000 pounds of recycled oyster shells were collected, cleaned and transported from Las Vegas to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to help launch The Nature Conservancy’s oyster shell recycling program, Save Our Shells .

“We piloted the program at Beau Rivage and we started just before Labor Day. In eight short weeks, we have already collected 10,000 pounds of shells here locally,” said Mary Cracchiolo, Beau Rivage communications director. “So we’re going to help launch the program.” We are a pilot in the program. We work with the Nature Conservancy for recycling twice a week and will soon launch this coast-wide program.

The shell donation was made as part of MGM Resorts’ Protecting our Planet sustainability program from 13 of the company’s restaurants in Las Vegas.

The oysters were transported to a 40-acre artificial reef in Bay St. Louis, named in honor of longtime Bay St. Louis resident and legendary Hancock County chef and restaurant owner Tony Trapani , died a few years ago.

“With this reef, we built it for elevation,” said Sierra Ortiz, coastal conservation specialist for The Nature Conservancy in Mississippi. “There are about 17,000 pods that we have built so that the oysters can have hard substrate and vertical relief, so putting in oyster shells is what they prefer.”

The recycled shells will create a surface on which new oysters can attach and grow.

“As private owners of oceanfront property, we see constant erosion of our waterfront, just like any other private property owner,” said Sara Guice, executive director of the Land Trust. “The work being done on the Tony Trapani Reef is therefore very important for coastal resilience across the whole coast and not only to help our own properties, but also all property owners along the coast.”

Michael Harvey, director of environmental affairs for Mississippi Power, added: “So one, just conservation. Simply increase awareness. So when people hear about this project, they’ll understand the benefit of reusing materials, reusing those oyster shells. You avoid their disposal, you release them into the environment and improve water quality and recreation. We all love fishing the coast and in a year or so it will be an amazing oyster reef to fish around.

This project was funded by the RESTORE Council, a federal agency created to award billions of dollars to restoration projects like Save Our Shells in five Gulf Coast states affected by the BP oil spill.

Fun fact: One oyster shell can give rise to 10 new oysters, which is very beneficial to the Gulf Coast.

Photojournalist: Michael Rodgers

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