Why Oysters?
Believe it or not, an adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water in a single day. Imagine what a whole army of them could do! In New York, an organization known as the Billion Oyster Project is using oysters to clean the water and rebuild reefs. This brilliant idea opened our eyes to the capabilities of these tiny creatures and provided inspiration for our own MOMI Project. Most people don’t know how amazing oysters really are. Let us show you!
Water Filtration
Our oysters will counteract years of polluted runoff poisoning our waters. Oysters are “filter feeders,” meaning that they eat by pumping water through their bodies and trapping particles, like plankton and algae, in their mucus-ridden gills. This feeding process is what actually purifies the water. As they search for their food, they consume dangerous pollutants like nitrogen, a dangerous substance that causes an overstimulation of algae growth, eutrophication and hypoxia, reduces biodiversity, and even contributes to global warming by releasing nitrous oxide (N2O), a dangerous greenhouse gas. Once a feeding oyster removes the desired nutrients from the water, the remaining indigestible material, which includes toxic sediment and other pollutants, is shaped into silt-like feces and deposited as a new, safer substance at the bottom. When oysters eat and poop, they are simultaneously saving our waters!
Biodiversity Attraction
Oysters reefs around the world are teeming with marine wildlife. Like coral reefs, these structures provide a forest-like habitat for hundreds of species of sea creatures. Oysters reproduce and grow off of each other, creating a hard structure ideal for an underwater town. The oysters’ deposited sediment provides food for small creatures, and between the hard oyster shells are nooks and crannies that provide shelter for hundreds of animals, including crabs, sea squirts, sponges, and barnacles. With the abundance of small prey, larger predator fish, like barracuda, ulua, and pufferfish, are abundantly present. Oyster reefs provide an idea home for all kinds of marine animals, which thereby restores ecosystems and provides aid for the depleting fishing industry.
Ala Wai Canal
The Ala Wai Canal is an artificial waterway in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. The canal was created in 1928 to drain the rice paddies and swamp in the district which would eventually become the famous tourist destination Waikiki. Engineers hoped that the canal would become the “Venice of the Pacific,” but its story is far more tragic. Today, it serves as Waikiki’s northern border, runs beside ‘Iolani School, and serves as the primary drainage destination for rivers and streams throughout Honolulu.
The most famous Ala Wai disaster occurred on in March of 2006. For 41 torrential days, rain fell across the islands. The sewers around the Ala Wai were overwhelmed, and the pressurized sewage line broke. Days later, Mayor Mufi Hannemann made a critical decision: divert nearly 48 million gallons of untreated sewage into the canal. His intention was to avoid having the sewage affect hotels and residences, and in this regard, he was successful. However, the canal could not contain all of this extra water. The canal overflowed, unleashing gallons of sewage across the Waikiki and Ala Moana districts. Several nearby beaches had to be temporarily closed due to health concerns. One person even died due to a flesh eating bacterial infection after falling into the Ala Wai Harbor found near the mouth of the canal. His death was attributed to the higher levels of bacteria present after the flood.
Today, the Ala Wai is polluted and hypereutrophic. Due to the combined drainage from the Manoa and Palolo streams, the middle of the canal contains underwater ridges that restrict the exchange of seawater. This restriction results in oxygen depletion, which, combined with the small reservoir size, lone opening, and frequent freshwater drainage from the city of Honolulu, contribute to the both the hypereutrophication and the abundance of heavy metals, radionuclides, and other pollutants. The canal’s toxic waters still spill into our ocean, poisoning marine life and destroying our ecosystem. We hope that the MOMI Project’s contributions to the quest of the O‘ahu Waterkeepers will turn the canal into a clean, pure waterway where people can fish and swim. Oysters have the power to restore this harmful body of water and create an new unseen age of clarity, cleanliness, and purity in the Ala Wai Canal.