by Eleanor Cummins / illustration by Sinelab
3/Along the shore
Beaches lose thousands
of cubic yards of sand
to wind and waves every
year. Sand shifts along
shorelines naturally,
but oysters can help
prevent excess erosion.
They slow the surf,
keeping the little golden
granules in place— and
protect seaside homes
from flooding.4/In the breakers
When a wave breaks over
an oyster colony, their
clustered bodies slow the
water, providing a natural
seawall similar to coral.
Bivalve-built reefs once
protected vast tracts of
the Atlantic coast, but
overharvesting and pollu-
tion destroyed them.
Hopefully we can rebuild
these ancient buffers.1/Beneath
the surface
Undoing our damage to
oysters can help ease our
impact on everything else.
Each one can filter up to
50 gallons of water a
day. Replenished beds
could help restore the
Chesapeake Bay and sur-
rounding lands, a region
known for rare birds,
horseshoe crabs, and
agricultural pollution.LAYER CAKE
new worlds from
old oysters
PROTECTING THE PLANET’S SANDY FRINGES IS
increasingly important: Around one-third of Americans
live within 50 miles of the coast, even as climate change
erodes the land beneath their feet. Storms and sea-level
rise are eating away at the fragile edges of continents,
leaving us with less and less solid ground to stand on. To
combat water’s advance, some communities are depositing
mollusks in strategic spots as a nature- inspired engineer-
ing solution. Here’s where and how oyster- tecture could
keep our homes from crumbling away into the sea.
2/At the bottom
Larvae need something
to hold on to. In lieu of
their layered ancestral
homes, 40-micron eggs
can grow on discarded
oyster shells from
restaurants. The husks
dry out for a year, then
get seeded with eggs,
bundled into porous con-
tainers, and dumped in
the harbor.POPSCI.COM • FALL 2019 15