In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the U.S. eastern seaboard. The storm surge, flooding and winds caused extensive loss of life and damage in Tottenville, a neighbourhood surrounded by water on three sides in the Staten Island borough of New York.
In addition to its geography, however, the area had previously lost a natural protective barrier due to years of overfishing and pollution: oyster reefs.
Reefs are formed when oysters cluster together and grow on top of hard submerged surfaces such as rock or marine debris. They can buffer the impact of stormy waves and shoreline erosion.
Now, a shoreline protection project called Living Breakwaters, led by New York-based landscape architectural studio Scape is rebuilding oyster reefs that once thrived off of the southern shores of Staten Island — and some researchers hope the same can be done in Canada, as well.
According to Scape, Living Breakwaters currently “consists primarily …