From Restaurant to Reef: Building Resilient Coasts and Recycling (Oyster) Roasts

This month, we're welcoming the team from Shell to Shore, an Athens-based oyster shell recycling initiative that works with restaurants across the state of Georgia to rebuild shorelines.

Oysters -- the same kind you slurp down as an appetizer at that restaurant downtown -- have incredible potential for fighting sea level rise. In the wild, oysters build reefs together, with baby oysters settling on the old shells of bivalves past and offering a tough breakwater to stabilize shorelines and slow waves hitting the beach.

With the help of Shell to Shore, those restaurant oyster shells don't go in the trash -- instead, they get taken back to the coast to help restore coastal ecosystems. With a little help from their engineering friends, the Shell to Shore team is now developing restoration projects with community members at locations like Sapelo Island, Georgia.

This episode is all about lessons learned, how to scale up from starting at home, and of course, plenty of oyster fun facts.

Featuring:
Brock Woodson, co-director of IRIS and UGA professor of engineering
Tyler Leslie, Executive Director and co-founder of Shell to Shore
Nik Heynen, UGA professor of geography and Director of Education for Shell to Shore
Hunt Revell, environmental attorney and President and co-founder of Shell to Shore

Brock's Haiku:
Oysters depleted
once abundant, soon restored
protecting our shores

Learn more about S2S at https://www.shelltoshore.com/
Donate here: https://givebutter.com/S2Sdonate
Get in touch: https://www.shelltoshore.com/contact-us