VIRGINIA BEACH – A group of Hampton Roads teens is restoring oysters in the Lynnhaven River this weekend and hoping to set a world record in the process.
Student volunteers with Project Green Teens have been hauling pieces of specialized concrete into the water along Great Neck Park since Saturday to help foster oyster life. The weekend effort, which was scheduled to run at least through Sunday, is the third phase of the group’s Adopt-A-Reef project of creating an oyster reef to rebuild the population and stabilize the shoreline. The project began in 2013.
“I think they have a good time doing it, getting dirty and hands-on in the project,” said Julie Braley a spokeswoman for Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation.
There is no world record for largest oyster reef installation by teens, Braley said, so the local group is trying to create the mark. To do so, their installation must be done entirely by teens.
About 30 students are lugging specially-made, heavy pieces of concrete with oysters shells adhered to them — Oyster Castles — into the Eastern Branch of the Lynnhaven River at Great Neck Park. The students, in grades 7 through 12, hail from area schools.
The teens had previously installed 34 castles and planned to add another 16 this weekend, according to Katie Whanger, a Virginia Beach recreation specialist who has overseen the reef plans for about a year. The project will be submitted to Guinness World Records when this last round of work is finished.
If fully colonized, the student-assisted reef will have the potential to filter almost 900,000 gallons of water a day, according to the Parks and Recreation Department. The project cost about $7,000; the teens paid for it by fundraising and securing grants over the past three years. The blocks for the castles run about $5 each, but shipping costs are in the thousands, Whanger said.
“I think we’re all pretty impressed with ourselves for pulling it off,” said Sarah Conley, a senior at First Colonial High School and president of Project Green Teens.
Conley has been involved with the project since its inception. She said the water has turned significantly clearer since they started the work.
“In a few years’ time those castles will be completely covered in oysters, and those oysters will continue to grow even after we’ve built it,” Conley said.
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