Fort Lauderdale’s polluted waterways need help: Here come the oysters

Photo: Mike Lambrechts — The Broward chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association is providing homes for oysters to filter water in Fort Lauderdale’s sewage-contaminated waterways.

As broken sewage pipes foul Fort Lauderdale’s waterways, a group of conservationists has begun deploying one of the world’s most formidable filtration systems.

A single oyster can cleanse more than 50 gallons of water a day. Volunteers with Coastal Conservation Association, a recreational fishing and conservation group, have begun distributing 100 pizza-sized mini-reefs to waterfront homeowners that will provide places for oyster larvae to latch onto, reach adulthood and turn into an army of water cleaners.

Will the oysters turn out to be saltwater superheroes? Could a plucky team of bivalves save Fort Lauderdale’s waterways from years of official neglect?

Short answer: No. Not even close.

No group of mollusks, no matter how determined, could filter the millions of gallons of sewage spewed from the city’s broken pipes.

But the conservation group, which is working with a scientist affiliated with the University of Miami and NOAA, is trying to learn what areas of the city might be most favorable for oysters and then scale up the project to put an effective number of the small but potent mollusks into the water.

"I wouldn’t look at it like it’s going to solve all of our problems," said Michael Lambrechts, president of Coastal Conservation Association’s Broward chapter. "The best case […]

Full article: Fort Lauderdale’s polluted waterways need help: Here come the oysters