[ti:Oysters Return to New York¡¯s Great South Bay]
[ar:Marsha James]
[al:Science In The News]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]The Blue Point oyster is returning to the Great South Bay of New York 
[00:07.01]after almost disappearing from the world marketplace. 
[00:12.71]Over-farming, pollution and Hurricane Sandy had severely damaged 
[00:19.90]the Blue Point oyster business. 
[00:22.58]Now, the population is growing in its home on the coast of Long Island, 
[00:30.32]about 100 kilometers from New York City.
[00:34.28]When the huge ocean storm called Sandy hit Long Island in 2013 
[00:42.75]it destroyed the Blue Point oyster beds. 
[00:47.17]John Cochrane is a councilman in the Town of Islip.
[00:53.10]"There was 15-foot [4.5 meter] seas hitting those beds. 
[00:56.32]It took all the oysterman's gear and oysters and ripped half of them away 
[01:01.32]from their anchoring and the other half 
[01:03.15]got slammed into the bay bottom and got destroyed."
[01:06.30]John Cochrane pushed through a legislative measure 
[01:10.42]to lease 1,200 hectares of the Great South Bay to shellfish businesses. 
[01:18.13]Twenty-three local fishermen, including the Cochrane family, 
[01:23.94]have signed up so far.
[01:26.36]"We have plots on this Bay that were actually leased out by King George, 
[01:31.15]and families still have the charter in Brookhaven from King George."
[01:35.96]The Great Atlantic Shellfish Farms company will be 
[01:40.65]a major part of regrowing the oyster population in the Great South Bay. 
[01:47.70]Marty Byrnes is an aquaculturist with the company. 
[01:52.78]He is responsible for getting adult oysters to spawn - 
[01:58.89]lay eggs and produce the larvae that turn into millions of oysters.
[02:06.22]"Inside here is where all the larvae go after they have been spawned. 
[02:09.94]The eggs and sperm have mated and you actually have larvae swimming around here."
[02:16.43]Marty Byrnes grows the plant food of oysters, algae, 
[02:21.99]in large tanks filled with salt water. 
[02:26.13]The larvae absorb their algae diet for about two and a half weeks. 
[02:32.73]Then, baby oysters appear.
[02:36.38]"It looks like a grain of sand right now. It's amazing, nature."
[02:42.28]After six weeks, millions upon millions of these little oysters 
[02:48.77]are taken to farms in the bay. 
[02:51.74]They are placed in wire boxes to grow to harvesting size. 
[02:57.94]In 18 months, these oysters will be ready for market.
[03:04.00]Doug Winter is president of Great Atlantic. 
[03:09.20]He says the oyster business has come a long way 
[03:13.82]from the bay bottom harvesting of the 1800s.
[03:18.50]"With technology and advancements and the Internet 
[03:22.87]and people really being environmentally conscious, 
[03:24.71]there's a big push for aquaculture. 
[03:26.86]You can produce a lot more oysters, you can do it environmentally friendly, 
[03:31.22]you can create reefs and clean estuaries, waterways, 
[03:35.34]you can repopulate areas that are depleted and you can control your crop."
[03:40.98]The Blue Point is back. And the oysters are not just good to eat. 
[03:47.59]They are also good to the water. 
[03:51.08]Each oyster can filter more than 150 liters of water a day, 
[03:57.98]removing algae, nitrogen, and other pollutants.
[04:03.59]I'm Marsha James.
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