by John Boyle
NARRATION
This is Dave Johnson.
TAPE
Ooh, that's gonna be cold. So what I'm gonna do now is jump over the side …
NARRATION
During normal business hours, he is a food broker to large grocery store chains. All other times, he is in his boat, or in the water of Setauket Harbor, tending to his flock of oysters and scallops.
TAPE
Bruce where's that line, under the boat?
Bruce: its going back that way now …
Johnson: okay … (jumps in)
NARRATION
In 1984, almost 300,000 pounds of scallops were harvested from Long Island waters.
The following year a fast-growing algae known as brown tide decimated the scallop population.
Last year, only 2,000 pounds were brought ashore.
Which is why, last year, Johnson and a group of harbor residents submerged hand-made cages filled with 100,000 baby oysters and 6,000 scallops into the harbor to ride out the cold winter.
Their mission: to re-colonize the harbor with shellfish.
Today, eight months later, the cages are coming out.
TAPE
Dave and I will be down there releasing the cages from the mats and then sending them up here to the boat.
NARRATION
Chris Clapp is a graduate student working with the Long Island Nature Conservancy's shellfish restoration program.
TAPE
I'm here to help out Dave do some diving. Get his cages up. Hopefully, we'll be successful. We'll have some nice healthy oysters and scallops.
NARRATION
With the divers below, one of the remaining hands on deck, Lou Capone, reflects on why all this effort is worth it.
TAPE
The Long Island bay scallop was very unique. It had a sweetness about it. It was different from other scallops.
The Long Island bay scallop was something that everyone was willing to pay extra money for because of its taste.
NARRATION
Sometime later, Johnson brings the first of the cages to the surface.
TAPE
"They look okay, surprisingly."
Lou: "This is great. This is scallops and oysters."
NARRATION
At the shore, teams of volunteers continue the process
Of sorting and counting.
They also create a controlled environment for reproduction: a bucket filled with sperm-releasing males and female oysters capable of releasing a million eggs each.
TAPE
The reason we want to do a controlled spawning, that is, in buckets like that is because if they spawn just into the water they don't fertilize that well.
NARRATION
Kathy O'Sullivan is the president of the Long Island Seaport and Eco Center.
She says placing thousands of fertilized shellfish in protected areas throughout the harbor will work all over Long Island.
TAPE
Once you have a sanctuary, you have them successfully spawned in an area at a million -per-oyster, per season you have a great chance to make a population that sustains itself. Magnificently well.
NARRATION
In a year or two, the shellfish restoration project will move on to other Long Island harbors and bays, bringing their shellfish and volunteers with them to give back what we have taken.
For Columbia Radio News, I'm John Boyle.