What is the name of your organization?
Coastal Technologies Corp.
What is the name of your solution?
Scalable Oyster & Mussel Reef
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Instantly scalable oyster/mussel reef system to clean waters, reduce aquaculture losses, and increase coastal resilience for vulnerable communities
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Manhasset, NY, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Our solution addresses problems of human waste pollution, eutrophication and erosive coastal land loss. These issues affect the majority of the world’s population from vulnerable low-lying nations to critical coastal infrastructure everywhere. These problems are also dramatically impacting the global food production system, from subsistence sea-foraging to multinational aquaculture.
Human waste and fertilizer runoff contaminates coastal and freshwater sources with excess nutrients and pathogens. These cause toxic algal blooms and fishkills which collapse ecosystems and complex food webs. 1.7 billion people drink fecal contaminated water with half-a-million dying from water-borne illness yearly. Increased erosive sediment runoff further damages these delicate systems.
Shellfish are nature's most effective filtering agents. They remove excess algae, pathogens, and parasites that plague aquaculture, reduce damaging turbidity, and boost nitrogen cycling. Building shellfish reefs is our best sustainable bioremediation solution.
However, current reef methods suffer failures of over 85%. Unfortunately the causes are ingrained into these methods. The current paradigm is unsustainable.
Furthermore, 40% of the world’s population live on coasts in constant danger from erosion and flooding. Oyster reefs are effective natural wave breaks, increasing coastal resilience while reversing local effects of sea-level-rise by naturally building back shorelines.
What is your solution?
Our company has created the Oyster & Mussel Stacks reef building solution to address the increasing needs for coastal resilience, bioremediation and increased aquaculture yields.
Our solution is engineered to thwart the drivers of high shellfish mortality inherent with current reef building methods which fail due to unchecked predation, siltation and subsidence. Oyster & Mussel Stacks is designed to prevent these.
The devices function by the secure and easy torque-installation of a stainless steel coil-anchor armature. Natural slate stone or coir fiber plates are then stacked onto the armature, serving as abundant habitat for natural or tank-set shellfish colonization. It takes less than a minute to install each device and they are endlessly repositionable.
Baffles block predators such as crabs, snails and flatworks from accessing the developing shellfish, while the tiers position the plates off the hypoxic bottom and up into the water column, where bioremediation of eutrophication is most efficient.
Devices can be positioned closely together and linked, seeding eco-engineered permanent oyster reefs similar to the historic structural reefs that once protected our coastal communities and habitats.
Shellfish rapidly reduce the fish-gill disease paramoeba perurans, sealice larvae and other fish pathogens. Oyster & Mussel Stacks could economically and naturally reduce fish-farming losses.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our Oyster Stacks shellfish-reef building solution would benefit vulnerable coastal communities by supporting ecosystems, food webs, cleaning pathogen-laden turbid waters, and increasing structural coastal resilience.
Independent researchers have noted that Oyster Stacks provides productive nursery habitat for many species, including shrimp, fish and invertebrates. Seabirds congregate around the devices, creating a vibrant ecosystem. Therefore, establishing Oyster Stacks in coastal waters would have cascading positive impacts. Crabbers, shrimpers and fishermen would see greater yields resulting from the addition of rich, supportive nursery habitat.
Many underserved people live in low-lying regions where strengthening shores will save lives. Historically, shellfish reefs once ringed shores, protecting communities from strom surge and deadly flooding. However only a minute fraction of these once protective reefs remain. However, a close-deployment strategy of Oyster Stacks deployment would allow eco-engineering shellfish to grow together, connecting the devices. It is the only system designed to seed and recreate permanent reef structures.
The coastal home of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe is a primary example of this. The island this community inhabits was once 22,000 acres, but only 300 acres remains today. Structural shellfish reefs would prevent further land loss for vulnerable communities, while preserving and strengthening historic cultural connections to the sea.
