Humanity Unites Brilliance

Shellfish beds and reefs provide important habitat for other species, as well as acting as a breakwater for marshes and mangroves and stabilizing shorelines. Bivalve shellfish are suspension feeders that strain phytoplankton from water helping to clear and clean water, which aids in restoring sea grasses that provide shelter to fish.

Restoring a Critical Ecosystem

The Nature Conservancy established a Shellfish Restoration Network in 2004 to enhance the overall coordination of restoration by the Conservancy and its partners. We share lessons learned and provide advice on project design and monitoring approaches capable of documenting the ecological services provided by native shellfish.

The Conservancy provides new techniques for setting standards of successful restoration and analyzes project design and monitoring approaches to determine larger-scale projects.

To help identify and address the critical gaps in knowledge, we published A Practitioners Guide to the Design & Monitoring of Shellfish Restoration Projects. 

With partners, we are also examining the need to address global restoration of shellfish reefs and beds through the Shellfish Reefs at Risk Assessment project. Over the next two years, the Conservancy will work with internationally-recognized experts to identify the state, condition and action needed to conserve shellfish ecosystems around the world.

Find out more about the Shellfish Restoration Network.

Where We Work on Shellfish Restoration

• Chesapeake Bay, Virginia
• Smith Island, Virginia
• Puget Sound, Washington
• Indian River Lagoon, Florida
• Great South Bay, New York
• Peconic Bay, New York
• Netarts Bay Oyster Restoration, Oregon
• Grande Isle, Louisiana
• Wellfleet Bay, Massachusetts

Shellfish Conservation & Restoration Fact Sheet