"The foundations are there to rebuild these ecosystems, and there are considerable environmental and social benefits of doing this," says Melanie Bishop, a marine ecologist. But it is still unknown whether restored reefs can grow large enough to buffer coastlines, and oyster-restoration proponents acknowledge that it will take an untold number of transplanted oysters and many years before reefs can provide a bulwark against rising seas.
Coastlines around the globe were once protected by oyster reefs, expansive masses of oysters that had fused to rocks and each other. Overharvesting and habitat loss have demolished about 85% of Earth's oyster reefs in the past two centuries.
The Billion Oyster Project is leveraging the bivalve's engineering skills to slowly build a living breakwater. After a decade of refining the process, the project is generating know-how for other efforts that it has inspired elsewhere.
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