Purchase Oyster Roast Tickets

2010 Airlie Oyster Roast
October 15, 2010

A Message from the Airlie Gardens Director

We are gearing up for another year of fun, friendship and freshly roasted oysters, but that almost didn't happen this year. Just imagine never tasting an oyster again; or seeing beautiful shore birds fishing in our creeks. This scenario is in our not so distant future. So much attention lately has been given to the gulf oil crisis, and rightfully so, but we've been facing our own coastal crisis for decades, especially in the Bradley Creek. Shell fishing all across the North Carolina Coast has seen unprecedented decline, over half of our reefs are closed now due to pollution, while others are in severe crisis and likely to be closed soon. Ever wonder why we don't serve oysters from the Bradley Creek at our annual oyster roast? It's because the creek's been closed to oyster harvesting since 1946 and remains closed today for the same reason, pollution from runoff.

Airlie Gardens always has been a great resource for providing guests excellent opportunities for hands-on, quality education. This year our Oyster Roast will be no different. This is a chance to focus on our own environment, right here in New Hanover County. Our county is the second smallest county and the second most densely populated county in North Carolina. New Hanover County is an urban, coastal county containing many watersheds; most of our creeks are closed or severely impacted from polluted stormwater runoff. All of our land drains directly into vital waterways like the Cape Fear River, Intracoastal Waterway, and Atlantic Ocean via our watersheds. Whether you live inland or on the coast, your actions impact our water quality since everyone lives in a watershed. Cooperative efforts of conservation groups and universities are starting to provide the crucial information needed to help stem the tide of these destructive actions. With your help we can become part of the solution, and not continue the problem.

Jim McDaniel, Director

Purchase Oyster Roast Tickets

How will the crisis in the gulf impact our event?

• Did you know that in North Carolina, commercial shellfish harvests are limited to 10 bushels of oysters per boat, per day?
• For years, we have had to rely on commercial oyster farms in the gulf to provide the oysters for our roast
• To guarantee a good clean oyster after Hurricane Katrina, we turned to a supplier in Apalachicola Florida
• The oil spill in the gulf impacted our suppliers and they can't provide us with oysters this year
• We are choosing to serve renewable seafood like shrimp and fish and will be working with local fishermen
• In addition to oysters, we are choosing to serve renewable seafood like fish and will be working with local suppliers

Educational Information about Oysters

The Native Oyster -- (Crassostrea virginica)

Oysters have a vital role in coastal ecosystems and coastal economies. Acting as both a habitat and as a keystone species, oysters provide essential structural components to estuaries while generating many ecological benefits. Some of those benefits include the Three F's:

• Food—Oysters provide lots of food to an array of animals, not just humans.
• Filter—Oysters are filter feeders, meaning they filter out sediment, nutrients and plankton from the water in our estuaries, thereby improving water quality and reducing turbidity. One adult oyster can filter between 30-50 gallons of water per day. Think of what a million oysters can do!
• Fish Habitat—Oyster reefs provide critical habitat for a diverse array of aquatic animals, including many important commercial and recreational fish species. One healthy oyster reef can be home to over 300 different organisms, such as adult and juvenile fishes, shrimp, clams, and crabs. Without this habitat, NC fisheries suffer.

Airlie Gardens, in partnership with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, has embraced the oyster as the most important organism to support for marshland restoration. Airlie has constructed a 400-foot artificial reef out of recycled oyster shells to encourage the growth of new oysters. Oyster shell provides a surface for new oysters to attach to and the recycled shell slowly dissolves calcium into the water which is used by living oysters to grow their shells. Baby oysters, or spat, will only attach to hard surfaces, and oyster shell is their preferred substrate material. By providing that substrate, oysters will grow and thus improve water quality. A single three-inch oyster can support 30 other oysters growing on that one shell. Oyster reefs can also be used for shoreline protection by breaking up waves approaching the shore.

The North Carolina oyster population has declined by 90 percent since the year 1900. Much of this decline is attributed to over-harvesting, poor water quality, oyster disease, and the lack of oyster shell recycling. Traditionally oyster shell has been discarded or used in landscaping after the meat has been consumed, but now it is against the law in North Carolina to send oyster shell to the landfill. The NC Division of Marine Fisheries has established an oyster shell recycling program (with tax credits) to provide shells for oyster reef restoration efforts.

Urban Influence and Human Impact

New Hanover County is the second most densely populated County in the state, which means it also has a high concentration of stormwater pollution. Every time it rains in NHC, pollutants get washed into our waterways. Gasoline, oil, fertilizer, pesticide, sediment, and especially dog waste are among the top water polluters in this area. All of these pollutants are considered non-point source pollution, which is pollution that comes from many diffuse sources and cannot be isolated or identified like point-source pollution, which comes from industrial and sewage treatment plants with identifiable points of discharge, such as oil spills. Locally, non-point source pollution is the number one concern for water quality. In fact, the worst water quality problem in New Hanover County is pet waste, a non-point source of pollution. Every single day more than 13 tons of dog waste is deposited on the ground in this county alone (this does not include the waste of cats, birds, livestock, etc). When it rains, pet waste ends up in our water. The biggest water quality problem in the state is sedimentation, another form of non-point source pollution. Sediment is loose soil that ends up in our rivers and streams as a result of development, agriculture and vegetative clearing. This sediment can cloud water, blocking sunlight from plants and suffocating the eggs of many aquatic organisms as well as clogging the gills of fish.

The oyster population is affected by stormwater runoff, and the health of the oysters is a reflection of how human activity impacts the health of aquatic and terrestrial environments. The water quality in Bradley Creek is so impaired that shellfishing beds in this creek have been closed since the 1940s. Fecal coliform bacteria from animal waste, emissions and spills from boat traffic, chemical fertilizers and pesticides from lawns, and other pollutants associated with urban land practices continually damage the health of the Bradley Creek ecosystem. Eating oysters out of Bradley Creek can make a person sick, and unfortunately the Creek is not getting any healthier. Oyster beds across the southeast are facing similar problems, which threatens the regional oyster fishery. If no local oysters are available, oysters are imported, which hurts the local fisheries financially and may support a fishery overseas that is environmentally irresponsible.

As more people move into this area, there is an increasing amount of development. Development leads to an increase in impervious surface. Impervious surface is hard surface, such as driveways, streets, parking lots and rooftops, which prevent stormwater runoff from naturally infiltrating into the ground. Runoff carries pollutants directly into our waterways. Stormwater runoff in NHC does not go to a treatment plant. On the other hand, pervious surfaces allow water to soak into the ground and filter out pollutants, thus recharging ground water. Native vegetation and soil with healthy microbial life is the best type of pervious surface because the roots, bacteria, and fungi in the soil filter out pollutants all while allowing clean water to pass through the soil into aquifers.

Airlie's Efforts

Besides advocating for oyster shell recycling and reef restoration, Airlie also strongly supports the implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs). BMPs can be structural or behavioral initiatives that lessen the effect of human influence on the environment. There are energy BMPs, agricultural BMPs, and even transportation BMPs. Airlie focuses on stormwater BMPs, or practices that help to clean up and reduce polluted stormwater runoff. Airlie demonstrates a number of working BMPs that homeowners can utilize. Here are examples of stormwater BMPs—

Behavioral: pick-up pet waste; wash cars on grass; reduce or eliminate chemical fertilizer use (test soil tested to determine the amount of fertilizer your lawn needs—NHC Arboretum performs this service for free); don't discard anything in storm drains or creeks; avoid pesticides; recycle auto fluids at an auto parts store or County Landfill; properly dispose of household hazardous waste (paints, solvents, etc.) l; educate a neighbor, oyster shell recycling,

Structural: rain barrels/cisterns, riparian (i.e. next to the water) buffers and living shorelines, pervious materials, native plantings, grassy swales, retention ponds, rain gardens, shade trees, constructed wetlands, oyster reef restoration

Specific Oyster BMPs: be a careful boater and avoid anchoring in oysters and underwater grass beds, follow shellfish regulations, become an "oyster gardener" through the NC Division of Marine Fisheries or join groups like the Citizens' Oyster Gardening Project or the North Carolina Coastal Federation