The Friends of Bellport Bay (FoBB) planted more than 100,000 oysters into the Town of Brookhaven's Bellport Bay sanctuary on Saturday, August 29, in the group's latest push to restore water quality in the bay.

The oysters, grown under private docks along the Bellport Bay shoreline, were loaded onto a boat at the beach west of Bellport Marina's main dock before being planted. "Just to the west of us in Blue Point...is where millions of oysters were harvested, and died out," said Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine at the event. "So now we've come to save them...Let's preserve some of this bay from overharvesting."

A single adult oyster can filter roughly 50 gallons of water a day at no cost. "It's the Roomba of the sea," said Bellport Village Mayor Maureen Veitch. FoBB estimates its shellfish now filter some 300 million gallons of bay water daily.

Founded in 2015, FoBB has sustainably planted more than six million shellfish over the past 11 years as part of its Operation Ecosystem Restoration program, partnering with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County and the Town of Brookhaven. The group says its work helps keep the bay safe for swimming, sailing, paddleboarding and fishing for roughly a million residents across Suffolk County.

Source: The Suffolk County News