NYC students aim to fill New York Harbor with a billion oysters by 2030

There was once a time when New York's harbor was packed with water-cleaning oysters, and students at the New York Harbor School have been hard at work with a plan to restore the waterway to that state. Through the school's innovative <a href="http://www.billionoysterproject.org/" target="_blank">Billion Oyster Project</a> (BOP), the kids have been implementing efforts aimed at cleaning up <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/tag/new-york-harbor/" target="_blank">New York Harbor</a> by stimulating populations of everyone's favorite slimy mollusk. Using a hands-on educational approach, the goal of the program, which works with local youth, is to filter the harbor's notorious murky waters by reviving the local oyster population to one billion by 2030.

In addition to the ultimate goal of reviving the oyster population, the program is dedicated to teaching local city kids about the complex ecology and history of New York waterways.

One little oyster is capable of filtering one gallon of water an hour, therefore making its role in our oceans essential.

During their time in BOP, participants learn to SCUBA dive safely, raise oyster larvae, operate and maintain vessels, build and operate commercial-scaled oyster nurseries, design underwater monitoring equipment and conduct long-term research projects all in the murky waters of the bustling city harbor.

Schematic for the Billion Oyster Project.

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Recycling oyster shells is also a part of the ambitious project.

So far, since the program began roughly six years ago, students have reintroduced over 11 million oysters to the waterways.