Billion Oyster Project (BOP) is an effort to restore a sustainable oyster population and to foster awareness, affinity, and understanding of the Harbor by engaging New Yorkers directly in the work of restoring one billion oysters.
The hands-on science of reef construction and monitoring is executed through in-school restoration based STEM learning opportunities, community science and research, restaurant shell collection and volunteer programs.
Students at New York Harbor School have been growing and restoring oysters in New York Harbor for the last seven years. They have learned to SCUBA dive safely, raise oyster larvae, operate and maintain vessels, build and operate commercial-scaled oyster nurseries, design underwater monitoring equipment and conduct long-term authentic research projects all in the murky, contaminated, fast-moving waters of one of the busiest ports in the country.
Billion Oyster Project now collaborates with over seventy middle and high schools throughout all five boroughs. At these schools, BOP works with teachers to provide authentic, place-based science and math lessons taught through the lens of oyster restoration. Each year, thousands of students participate in these learning opportunities and together have produced a rich and authentic data set describing oyster growth and survival, water quality, presence and diversity of other organisms at over 30 sites.
