We are all about Shellfish

RCTB is more than an endeavor to restock a decimated shellfish population. A critical part of our mission is forming and supporting partnerships with academics, municipalities, citizen groups and other environmental organizations in order to educate the public. This empowers and energizes them to make changes to their life style to improve the quality and resilience of the bay.

RCTB engages people in growing shellfish from tiny seeds (the size of a pencil point) in June to the size of an M&M candy by October. We also conduct remote sets where we enable oyster larvae to set on recycled clam and oyster shells. We fill and deploy bags of recycled shells into the bay to stabilize shorelines and catch natural spat from wild oysters. This close involvement establishes a sense of caring (stewardship) that helps people see the reason to change behavior firsthand.

Shellfish 101

We grow shellfish, mostly seed clams and oysters to stock our local bay while we teach everyone how important and fragile the shellfish population and our environment really is.

Raising Happy Shellfish

There are certain things that all living things require; food, water, sunlight, oxygen. And they need a way to protect themselves from being eaten by predators! To get them started we grow them in a large tank called an upweller. This is really a shellfish nursery.

Services Shellfish Provide

The services are part of the reason we grow these animals. They serve as great research animals and they help the environment.

Everything is Connected

Shellfish are a very important part of the food web and since they live in the water in the estuary the includes Barnegat Bay, Manahawkin Bay and Little Egg Harbor Bay are connected to everything else on our planet by water.

Investing in the Watershed

Last year, RCTB volunteers collectively devoted over 6,500 hours of service to the Barnegat Bay Watershed.

Stabilizing Shorelines

Stabilizing shorelines is just one of the related activities necessary to make our estuary more resilient.

Interactive Learning Experiences

RCTB provides interactive activities that explain the importance of shellfish in our environment and enable people to enjoy and participate in improvements.