Oyster Placement Goes Beautifully

As we picked up the oysters on the night of October 28th the rain was streaming down and we had almost no fuel in the van loaned to us by Island Creek Oysters. We soon found an open station and brought the 50,000 bivalves that were carefully packed and cooled inside to Charlestownfor an overnight stop. From that inauspicious moment things improved dramatically.

The rains subsided and there was a glorious sunrise as we left Dunkin Doughnuts with morning refreshments for the volunteers. Upon arrival at the drop site, the first of the divers Dave"inspector gadget" was already there with a trailer full of equipment, a tent frame/shelter up and a grin wide enough to cross the Charles. He even brought his 11 year old son Matt along who was a tremendous help. As we began unpacking, an inspiring  stream of volunteers began arriving: Lisa from UMass, MOP stalwart Pam Bradie, Jarrett from the Mystic River Watershed, Mat Brevard our dive leader, Frans from the Charles River Swim. And they kept coming.

To see photos you can go to this web album. MOP 2009 Placement


Everyone pitched in and we had a very nice day. We mesured oysters, placed them into frames designed and built by Mat, while the divers hit the water. On the next dive they began placing them in the water, the afternoon culminated with area children disbursing the last 40,000 oysters from a boat into carefully marked areas. (Last year the boats drifted a bit and some of the oysters landed in areas with significant silt.)

Here is a link to oyster-blogger Josh's write up Josh's photos

The day ended well. Now we wait and see how they do.

There have been some other nice developments. We had press coverage extended out to the Worcester Telegram..

Here is a link to the Article in the Boston Herald.

Other non-profits are begginning to show an interest in getting involved. The wave is beginning to grow.

We have so much still to do. We hope to file three more grants in the next month to position us better for the future. Remember MOP is all volunteer so the funds we raise go into our Harbor!