Meredith Comi and Mike Acquafreda, of the NY/NJ Baykeeper, pull nets of oysters from the waters off Naval Weapons Station Earle. ERIC SUCAR staff KEYPORT — A $16,057 grant will help the NY/NJ Baykeeper relocate and rebuild its aquaculture facility for incubating oysters damaged during superstorm Sandy.
According to Meredith Comi, director of the oyster restoration program, the facility, which is currently located at Moby’s Lobster Deck in Highlands, will be relocated to Naval Weapons Station Earle in Leonardo.
“This was very unexpected and surprising,” Comi said of the grant from the Dave Matthews Band’s Bama Works Fund.
“We are so grateful for the cooperation and generosity of the Navy, and we thank the Dave Matthews Band for the support. This will allow us to rebuild completely.”
Comi said that the aquaculture facility sustained $16,000 in significant damage to equipment, plumbing and electrical systems during the Oct. 29 superstorm.
The facility includes four tanks that hold the seed oysters as well as plumbing, an air system and heating.
“The head tank we use to store water was damaged. That is being repaired now,” she said.
The entire electrical system needed to be replaced after it was damaged by a 2- to 4- foot surge that washed over Sandy Hook and inundated Moby’s.
In addition, the entire plumbing system needed to be replaced because pipes broke during the storm, she said.
After assessing all the damage, Comi said the Keyport-based environmental group submitted an application to the New Jersey Recovery Fund, funded through the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
According to the foundation website, the recovery fund helps nonprofits and communities rebuild after superstorm Sandy.
One of the major partners for the fund is the Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews Band, which has made over 800 grants totaling more than $15 million since its inception.
“We received the grant in January. We didn’t know it at the time, but we found out that it was through Bama Works,” Comi said, adding that the group was awarded the entire $16,000 that was applied for.
While Moby’s Lobster Deck has housed the Baykeeper’s aquaculture facility for the past eight years, the group decided to relocate to Naval Weapons Station Earle, where the Baykeeper’s oyster restoration program is based.
“It felt like the logical thing to have everything in one place,” Comi said. “We don’t have permits to work anywhere else right now, so [being] in one place makes it easier.”
The oyster restoration project at Earle began in late 2011, approximately a year after the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) shut down the Baykeeper’s project in 2010.
The DEP raised concerns that oysters used for ecological restoration could be poached and sold to consumers, which could create a public health problem.
After the shutdown, the Baykeeper approached the U.S. Navy and proposed placing the oyster cages at Earle, which is under
24/7 security, eliminating the poaching risk.
In June 2012, the oyster nets were hauled out of the water, and officials announced that approximately 90 percent of the 3,600 oysters had survived.
The results prompted the Baykeeper to ask the DEP for permission to expand the project. On Jan. 2, the DEP issued a fiveyear permit to use approximately 10.7 acres of Navy property for the research.
The Baykeeper will test three support structures for the oysters to determine which will better withstand storm conditions in
Raritan Bay.
The facility’s move to the naval base has already begun, and Comi estimated that the majority of the work would be completed by
May.
The facility itself won’t require a main building, she said, so the only rebuilding involved is the new plumbing, air filtration and heating systems.
Comi added that despite the move and the rebuilding, the Baykeeper is on schedule to facilitate expansion of the oyster project at Earle.
“We are starting to plan for the season, creating a timeline and getting staff in place,” Comi said. “I am confident that we will be able to start running the facility in June.”