Cops Shot Far Rockaway Teen 11 Times
Video: New School Students, Comrades Toss Trash Pre-Arrest
Straphanger Who Pulled Emergency Brake Comes Forward
Turkey Cruelty Ad Nixed By NBC
Would You Be Comfortable Locked On A Train With A Murderer?
Solar One, the non-profit Community Environmental Center here in New York, is raising some funds for the new year. Their latest $100 donation plan is dubbed Environmental Health on a Half Shell. It's simple...if you donate 100 bucks, they'll plant 100 oysters in the East River for you. They explain: "The lowly oyster provides a natural filtering system - they eat algae, and well, raw sewage. They purify our waters. When the Dutch arrived, the lower Hudson River Estuary contained 350 square miles of oyster beds. These many millions of bi-valve beauties cleaned the lower Estuary in a single day. They contributed mightily to the wealth of New York as well - pickled oysters became important trade with the British West Indies. Oysters were produced in all 5 boroughs...sold on every corner. Sadly, sewage and pollution exhausted the last beds in 1927." Last year they planted 3,000 oysters, and this year they have a goal of 10,000 (you can help). Just imagine a swimmable East River! And quick, someone dump some oysters in the Gowanus.
Planting Oysters in the East River
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebookComments (13) [rss]
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
Tips
Newsmap
Contribute
There are oysters in the Gowanus already: http://www.gowanusoysters.com/. Read Joseph Mitchell's Bottom of the Harbor to learn more, or Mark Kurlansky's "The Big Oyster" if you're more ambitious.
"imagine a swimmable East River!"
The East River will never be swimmable no matter how clean it is. It's not a river at all but a tidal straight. It has insanely powerful currents due to the tides funneling between New York Harbor and the Long Island Sound. The current is so strong it cannot be tapped for generating hydroelectricity. It's called Hell Gate for a reason. All that being said, this sounds like an awesome project and I will definitely contribute.
The oyster trade may have contributed to the economy in the 18th century, but somehow I get the feeling no New Yorker today would be brave enough to eat any East River oysters.
Not even in months that end in 'er'!
Only in the months that end with 'ist'.
Raw sewage, eh? That must be why they taste so good.
The ones that eat cooked sewage are sooooo bland.
Sounds as good as the Coney Island White Fish, or the Red Hook Brown Trout.
The Urban Whitefish run mostly in the summer but Gowanus Oysters can be enjoyed year-round or whenever they burbble up from the oily murk.
So they eat sewage and then we eat them. Stellar.
so they eat raw sewage...but sewage exhausted the last oyster beds in 1927...hmmm
will their pearls give me rashes?
Their pearls will glow in the dark :-)! It's an awesome project, and with oysters like two bucks each (or more) at some fancy-schmancy oyster bar, $100 bucks for 100 is a bargain. Count me in. Solar One should go for one million by 20012!