For more than four years, the Bayonne schools worked to establish an oyster farm somewhere off the shores of Bayonne.
This was one of scores of projects developed throughout heavily polluted waterways of northern New Jersey as a method to help restore the ecological balance destroyed when heavy industry, unregulated sewerage plants, and other entities used rivers to dump pollution.
Then, bowing to pressure from commercial oyster farms in the Delaware River basin who feared unscrupulous poachers would harvest the crops of farms in the north, the state Department of Environmental Protection in June 2010 ordered the closing of the northern farms, literally undermining projects that had been underway for more than a dozen years and voiding efforts like those in Bayonne, where the farm was supposed to be used as an educational tool about the environment.
“I realized how important these were to the water.” — Elena Kovacs
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For all intents and purposes, the mussels do much of the same thing for the environment. Tokar said they became an educational tool to show students from all 12 public schools in Bayonne about the cycle of life and how different elements are connected within the environment.
While most people are aware of mussels on some level, even if only in a dish served with tomato sauce in local restaurants, students soon learned how sensitive they are to changes in the ecosystem and how they can be used to build a food chain that will make an ecosystem stronger.
Matthew Hart, a seventh grader at Bailey School, said they started this project last September when they were given mussel larva to begin the process of growing. This was his first year doing it, he said, and some of his mussels died. But these were useful, too, because when planted, they would serve as food for other creatures.
“We dug them up from behind the high school,” Tokar said.
Hart said the larva were incubated in various parts of the city, including Robin’s Reef Boat Club on Newark Bay.
Science students from the various schools make regular field trips to these incubators.
“We did water tests and checked on them,” said Michael Luzia, also a seventh grader.
A mussel can filter 15 gallons of water in a single day.
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All along, Tokar and Larissa Drennan – a science teacher at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School – wanted to find a location where they could relocate the mussels in a permanent habitat, thus completing the education about the ecosystem.
“After the ban on the oysters, we had to destroy those,” he said. “We really wanted to see this planted.”
In stepped the Bayonne Golf Club
Ron D’Argenio, the attorney for the Bayonne Gold Club, said he had actually been looking to do an environmental project around the perimeter of the club for some time.
Because the shore area was once an oyster bed when New York harbor was a leading provider of oysters early in the 20th century, he thought that was a good idea.
But when Tokar and Drennan approached him, D’Argenio said the club was not only willing to host the project, but also contribute money towards the supplies needed to keep the program going.
“We gave them $5,000 to help them buy what they needed,” D’Argenio said. “This program helps us because we are very sensitive to the environment here, and we would like to do more.”
Mark Gallagher, the club’s environmental specialist who helped design the local estuary, said the project helps do several things for the local environment – providing food for wild life and helping to prevent erosion by stabilizing the roots of the water grasses.
Hart, one of the students from Bailey, said that he learned that the mussels wrap around the roots in order to secure themselves and thus prevents the spartina grass from being washed away.
One of the other contributors to the program over the last two years has been the Longshoremen’s Local 1588.
“They’ve given us $3,000 for two years in a row,” Tokar said, “which has helped us purchase water testing equipment and t-shirts for all the 12 schools that are participating.”
Also, another important sponsor is PSE&G’s Environmental Partnership Program, which has constructed all the 12 Taylor Floats that were used to grow the mussels throughout the school year at various locations in the waters of Bayonne.
PSE&G was instrumental in the oyster program throughout the Meadowlands estuary in the Hackensack River, beginning one of the first farms in Secaucus area in the mid-1990s.
For two days, students went on an extended field trip to the Bayonne Golf Course walkway, where they learned about the local environment, and also about the history of the location.
The golf course was once the location of the city dump, as well as the proposed site for a PSE&G nuclear plant.
Some of their lessons involved the methods used to seal the dump and create the links style golf course – which kind of resembles the landscape of Scotland, with hills rather than vast flats.
The Bayonne Golf Course was recently named as one of the 23 top golf courses in the United States built since 1960.
History and science
Students said they learned about the salt marsh ecology and collected plankton. Then, putting on waders – large, green, hip high boots – students and instructors waded out into the mudflats during low tide and began to plant the mussels.
Like oysters, mussels are filter feeders, meaning that they feed on plankton and other microscopic creatures that are floating freely in the sea water. Mussels collect food by drawing in water, and then release the water. The process, however, has a huge benefit to the environment since they often filter out pollutants and expel water that is much cleaner.
A mussel can filter 15 gallons of water in a single day.
When mussels are born, they are larvae, with hairy cilia that allow them to swim. They might float for months looking for a place to settle. But they shortly develop shells. They attach to the ground using strong threads called byssus, rope like strands that attach to roots and other things and prevent erosion.
Angie Abdelbaky, an eighth grader, said she was interested in the project when she heard about it, which is why she got involved.
Elena Kovacs, also an eighth grader, said she had heard about the project from her science teacher.
“I realized how important these were to the water,” she said.
During the dig, they came up with a surprise, a dinner-plate sized oyster that was estimated to be about 100 years old.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.