By Laura Roach

Like any other business striving to reduce its carbon foot print Robert’s Maine Grill, is enrolled in a recycling program to reduce its waste. Owner Michael Landgarten makes sure no paper, no plastic, no glass and, perhaps most importantly, no oyster shells are thrown away. Through the efforts of Jeff Barnum, president of the Coastal Conservation Association of New Hampshire (CCANH), and Dr. Ray Grizzle of the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Robert’s Maine Grill is able to return its discarded oyster shells to an environment in need.

Great Bay’s oyster population has suffered a near detrimental reduction and collecting oyster shells from local restaurants is the first step to restoring historic oyster reefs. “In the early ‘90s there were well over 1,000 acres of healthy oyster beds,” said Jeff Barnum. “But now there are less than 100 acres of unhealthy oysters.” Oysters are vital to the bay ecosystem because they filter toxins and excess nitrogen in the water that may cause dangerous algal blooms and. Each oyster can filter 20 gallons of water a day. In the past the oyster beds filtered the whole bay in three to four days. The current oyster beds are only capable of filtering the bay in 450 days.

Oysters need hard surfaces on which to grow and mature. Currently, the floor of Great Bay is covered in silt which prevents the oysters from reproducing. With hopes of once again having healthy oyster reefs the CCANH applied for and received a $10,000 grant from the Orvis Company to start an oyster shell recycling program in conjunction with Robert’s Maine Grill in Kittery and Jumpin’ Jays Fish Café in Portsmouth. The restaurants collect their oyster shells in five gallon buckets. Weekly, Barnum retrieves the shells and transfers them to large bags. The bags are taken to UNH’s Kingman Farm in Madbury where they are seasoned for three months to kill pathogens before being deposited into Great Bay. On the floor of the bay the shells act as a solid substrate on which oyster larvae called spat are able to grow into mature oysters. The oysters reach sexual maturity at four years of age and are able to release more spat into the environment.

Overharvesting, disease and siltation have all contributed to the loss of oyster reefs. The two diseases plaguing the oysters are MSX and Dermo. Barnum suspects that the remaining oysters in Great Bay have developed a resistance to these diseases and any new oyster beds grown through the efforts of CCANH, UNH and the Nature Conservancy will have some genetic immunity to disease.

Marine ecologist Ray Konisky is also doing his part to rehabilitate the oyster population. He works at a UNH-run oyster farm at Fox Point in Newington and grows oysters in underwater boxes to later be introduced into the bay.

The CCANH suggests for individuals looking to help restore Great Bay to patronize restaurants that recycle their oyster shells. As Craig Spinney, head chef at Robert’s Maine Grill, said, “For every one oyster people eat here, two are returned to the environment.”

The folks at Robert’s Maine Grill are certainly doing their share of sustainability practices. Not only do they recycle oyster shells but they are also enrolled in a single stream recycling program and they are members of the Green Alliance, “green” business co-op. The Green Alliance rates firms on their efforts to save the environment. By participating in programs like oyster recycling Robert’s Maine Grill was able to get a score of 6.43 out 10.