Sentado em cima do ninho de corvo de uma pequena barcaça, o capitão do barco protegeu os olhos do sol de julho e lançou seu olhar para a comoção abaixo.
O zumbido de equipamentos pesados ​​e o barulho de conchas de ostras quebraram o silêncio da manhã enquanto as equipes de trabalho empilhavam milhares de quilos de conchas secas no convés, criando um monte de 12 pés de altura.

Quando a última concha foi colocada na pilha, o capitão manobrou a barca para longe de Russ Point Landing e desceu um riacho perto da Ilha Fripp em uma missão para salvar ostras selvagens.

O trabalho patrocinado pelo estado foi parte de um esforço para proteger as populações de ostras ameaçadas, devolvendo conchas de restaurantes, assados ​​de ostras no quintal e outras fontes para as marés. Colocar as conchas de volta na lama reconstrói os recifes, os refúgios que as ostras precisam para crescer e se multiplicar.

Mas os esforços para restaurar os recifes de ostras em lugares como o condado de Beaufort enfrentam uma ameaça que pode afetar praticamente qualquer pessoa que dependa da colheita de ostras selvagens.

A Carolina do Sul e os estados vizinhos estão tendo problemas para encontrar as conchas que precisam colocar de volta nas áreas de maré para restaurar as populações de ostras.

Ao mesmo tempo consideradas lixo marinho, as conchas de ostras tornaram-se uma mercadoria valiosa – mas limitada – ao longo da costa do Atlântico Sul.

"Este é definitivamente um problema nacional de vários estados:encontrar conchas", disse Ben Dyar, especialista em ostras do Departamento de Recursos Naturais da Carolina do Sul.

Sem suprimentos adequados de conchas, as populações de ostras podem sofrer, reduzindo a colheita comercial e elevando o preço do marisco nos restaurantes. Menos recifes de ostras e populações mais baixas também podem significar cursos de água mais poluídos, porque as ostras filtram os contaminantes da água.

Existem várias razões para a escassez de conchas, incluindo o preço que a colheita excessiva causou ao longo dos anos nos estados do Atlântico Sul. Mas as pessoas também estão jogando fora as conchas depois de servir ostras em casas de frutos do mar ou em assadeiras de ostras comunitárias. As pessoas estão usando conchas para pavimentar calçadas e melhorar jardins. E eles estão esmagando cascas para vender para ração de frango ou como ingredientes em produtos cosméticos.

A escassez é tão pronunciada que alguns estados gastaram milhões de dólares ao longo dos anos comprando conchas para restaurar e reconstruir os recifes de ostras – às vezes competindo pelas conchas limitadas oferecidas pelas casas desbastadas do Texas à Virgínia.

Os preços aumentaram de bem menos de um dólar por bushel há duas décadas para muitas vezes mais do que hoje. O custo agora está variando de US$ 3 a US$ 7 o alqueire, dizem alguns proprietários de casas e funcionários estaduais da vida selvagem.

A Carolina do Sul, com vastos pântanos e centenas de restaurantes de frutos do mar, gasta, em média, cerca de US$ 100.000 por ano comprando conchas de outros estados, de acordo com o Departamento de Recursos Naturais da Carolina do Sul.

Ao todo, o estado, usando uma variedade de fontes de financiamento, gastou quase US$ 1 milhão desde 2012 adquirindo mais de 407.000 alqueires de conchas de ostras, o que equivale a cerca de 22 milhões de libras, de acordo com o DNR.

A Carolina do Sul estava pagando menos de US$ 3 por bushel, mas o preço médio saltou acima de US$ 3 nos últimos dois anos, diz o DNR.

Mercado competitivo

Muitos outros estados também estão famintos por conchas de ostras.

A Geórgia gasta cerca de US$ 138.000 anualmente comprando conchas e transportando-as para o estado de Peach. As conchas geralmente vêm da Flórida e às vezes do Texas.

Algumas das maiores despesas na costa do Atlântico Sul estão em torno da Baía de Chesapeake, em Maryland e Virgínia.

A Virgínia gasta de US$ 2 milhões a US$ 3 milhões anualmente comprando conchas de ostras de casas de descasque e outras fontes no estado, disseram autoridades estaduais de lá.

Maryland até comprou vagões de trem de conchas de ostras fossilizadas da Flórida para ajudar em seus programas de restauração de ostras na Baía de Chesapeake, onde as populações de ostras caíram de níveis históricos.

"A coisa toda é uma loucura", disse Ted Wilgis, especialista em recifes de ostras da Federação Costeira da Carolina do Norte, sem fins lucrativos. "Acabou se tornando uma guerra de lances."

Alguns estados, incluindo a Carolina do Sul, tiveram mais sucesso recentemente na compra de conchas do que a Carolina do Norte porque o estado de Tar Heel tem um limite de quanto pode gastar. Na Geórgia, as autoridades dizem que nem sempre é fácil encontrar ostras quando querem comprá-las.

"A concha de ostra se tornou uma mercadoria preciosa, com demanda muito superior à oferta", disse Cameron Brinton, biólogo marinho da Divisão de Recursos Costeiros da Geórgia.

As ostras, que crescem na maioria das áreas costeiras dos Estados Unidos, têm um ciclo de vida que depende das marés e do sucesso das ostras larvais em encontrar superfícies duras.

As ostras bebés, pouco mais do que uma gosma indistinta após a desova, flutuam na maré e aderem a superfícies duras, desde recifes de ostras existentes a estacas de docas ou suportes de pontes. Na Carolina do Sul, esse processo ocorre durante a primavera e o verão.

Uma vez presos, eles se aninham em rachaduras e fendas, onde formam suas próprias conchas e crescem.

Mas as melhores superfícies duras para os filhotes de ostras se agarrarem são os recifes de ostras existentes, dizem os especialistas.

'Conchas são o lucro'

Jeff Milliken's family has run oyster shucking businesses for more than 60 years in the coastal crossroads of Shallotte, North Carolina, selling canned oysters to grocery stores and restaurants.

Oyster sales always kept his family business afloat, providing a decent living for the Millikens.

But for years, oyster shells left over from the shucking process were little more than waste material. Piles of oyster shells at the shucking house were virtually given away.

That began to change in the 1980s, as people increasingly sought to buy the shells, Milliken said. And that has enriched his family business.

The company sometimes sells what it calls scoops of oyster shells, the amount that can be held in the bucket of a front-end loader, for about $500. In the 1980s, the charge was closer to $50, he said.

"My dad always made the point that the oysters pay the bills and the shells are the profit," Milliken, 60, said. "The shells have become very lucrative."

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources buys large amounts of Milliken's shells to restore oyster beds.

"South Carolina has pretty much bought all of our production for reseeding the beds in South Carolina," Milliken said. "We do sell to the public but not like we used to. A lot of it is held for the state of South Carolina."

In addition to buying shells from people like Milliken, states are trying to re-use oyster shells, rather than letting them be dumped in landfills and in the woods, or crushed and used to pave driveways.

Commercial harvesters who lease oyster grounds from state agencies for private use often must put back a substantial percentage of oyster shells after they pluck shellfish from the mud.

Some states have launched oyster shell recycling programs that encourage restaurant owners to hold the shells until state natural resources officials or environmental groups can pick them up and replant them on public oyster grounds in the wild—as the South Carolina DNR did this summer near Fripp Island in Beaufort County.

State agencies and environmental groups from Maryland to Georgia have established shell drop-off sites on the coast for people who haul whole oysters home for backyard and community oyster roasts. State officials and volunteers then pick up shells at these drop-off sites and return them to marshes and sounds.

Additionally, some states have begun to allow oyster farming that could offset losses from wild populations.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, resource managers are working to establish artificial reefs to offset the shortage of oyster shells and replenish wild shellfish populations near the Outer Banks and in the Chesapeake Bay.

For those reasons, oysters aren't likely to disappear from the landscape as a result of the shell shortage, many natural resources officials say. But losing wild oyster reefs could deplete the populations, they say. Even with some success from artificial oyster reefs, returning shells to the wild is generally considered the best way to replenish and enhance natural reefs, some experts say.

Some restaurant owners say it's vital to recycle oyster shells.

"If oysters are harvested but none of the shells are recycled," Hilton Head Island restaurateur and chef Chris Carge said, "the oyster seeds are just going to drift away" and eventually, the local oyster population will dwindle significantly.

Should oyster populations drop because there aren't enough shells to restore wild populations, it could diminish local fishing economies, drive up oyster prices for restaurants, hurt water quality and affect other marine species that thrive around oyster reefs, state officials say.

In South Carolina, for instance, more than 100 species of marine animals rely on oyster reefs for survival. These mounds of shells, which are submerged below the water at high tide, provide habitat for small bait fish, which then attract larger, popular sports fish, including red drum, sea trout and flounder, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

Commercially caught oysters generate a dock value, or wholesale value, of some $3 million annually in South Carolina, making oysters the state's fourth-largest fishery, the DNR said in a report last winter.

Without an adequate supply of shells to replenish populations, oyster harvesting seasons might need to be shortened, a change sure to upset commercial and recreational fishermen.

"At some point, it is very plausible that there would have to be other measures and other tools taken to help manage that resource, meaning closing areas down for harvest for longer periods of time," Dyar said, noting it could have a corresponding effect on oyster prices.

Maintaining healthy oyster populations also is important because they filter out pollution in water, keeping tidal creeks cleaner.

Chicken feed and makeup

Perhaps the biggest reason for the lack of shells is historic over-harvesting in some areas, as well as the decline of shucking houses in others.

The Nature Conservancy found that 85% of the world's oyster reefs have been lost since the late 1800s because of over-harvesting, pollution and other factors, according to a South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium report.

Places like South Carolina also no longer have canneries where large supplies of oyster shells could be found to return to the salt marshes for restoration. At one point the state had 16 canneries, but the last one closed in 1986, according to the state DNR.

Some years, it is harder to find shells than in other years, depending on how many oysters are harvested. Beyond that, the lack of oyster shells may result, in part, from the public's increasing appetite for buying oysters in the shell, rather than in cans, and demand by a variety of businesses.

Poultry farms, construction companies and cosmetics manufacturers are among businesses that use oyster shells in their products. The calcium in oyster shells is believed to enhance many products, prompting efforts to find shells and grind them up.

Some poultry farmers purchase chicken feed supplements made from oyster shells. When fed to chickens, crushed oyster shells are believed to make egg shells harder.

Lesa Vold, a spokeswoman for the Egg Industry Center, said egg farmers like shell-based feed, but also are using other sources of calcium in places where shells are hard to find. The center supports egg producers across the country.

Milliken said his company for years sold crushed oyster shells to farm supply stores for sale to chicken farmers.

"We crushed just a huge amount of them," he said. "It's the best calcium for chicken egg-laying there is."

One marketing study, released this summer, said the oyster shell calcium market is expected to grow by 5% by 2030, fueled by an array of industrial demands for shells. Calcium carbonate in oyster shells is highly sought after, the study said.

The study, cited on the website Researchandmarkets.com, says oyster shell powder is useful in some skin-care products.

Worldwide, some manufacturers harvest oyster shells, crush them and blend them into facial cleansing powder, soaps and shampoo, according to a June 8 story on the website Premiumbeautynews.com.

Backyard oyster roasts

Another issue has arisen that has depleted the amount of oyster shells available to replenish wild populations.

Many shells are being scattered across the countryside, rather than returned to the salty tidelands of the southern Atlantic coast, after restaurants serve them or neighbors hold backyard oyster roasts.

Oysters harvested from the black pluff mud of Charleston may wind up sold to seafood markets whose customers are from Columbia, Greenville, Florence or Rock Hill. Those shells often are discarded in landfills or other places miles away from the coast.

"Quantities spread throughout the state (make) it a lot more difficult to capture that shell and bring it back to the coast," Dyar said in a report to the DNR board earlier this year.

It's difficult to say how many oysters have been removed from bays and creeks across the southeast and hauled inland, but natural resource managers say it's a problem, despite their best efforts.

South Carolina has one of the region's most robust shell recycling programs, with 30 sites where people can drop off shells after they've eaten oysters. Most of the sites are along the coast, although the DNR has them in Columbia and Greenville, as well. Once the shells are picked up, they are kept at multiple locations for months to dry out, which kills bacteria inside the shells.

But the state only captures about 12% of the shells that are harvested annually, meaning 88% of the shells from oysters sold in South Carolina are not recycled, according to a report by the S.C Department of Natural Resources.

Jean Fruh, executive director of The Outside Foundation, said the smell of keeping the oysters for typical once-a-week pickup, the cost, and additional training scare away some restaurant owners. However, the cost, Fruh and participating restaurateurs will tell you, is nominal:about $150 a month.

She said it's worth it.

"If you don't have oysters, you don't have fish, shrimp and crab," she said, because oysters create a critical habitat for the three during their juvenile period.

About 65 South Carolina restaurants collect shells for recycling, most of them in the Charleston area. Only a handful are in the Hilton Head Island and Myrtle Beach areas, according to the DNR.

Despite the struggle, natural resource managers in multiple states say they're still trying to maintain habitat for oysters, either through the use of artificial reefs, tighter laws on shell disposal, or recycling.

Dyar, the state DNR oyster specialist, said South Carolina's recycling program offers the best hope of maintaining enough oyster shells to replant in the marshes.

"We have seen over the last several years that sources are starting to become more scarce and the shells are becoming more expensive, causing an even more critical need for us to increase shell recycling within the state," Dyar said.

Oysters needed

During the July oyster planting trip, Michael Hodges, an oyster restoration biologist with the state DNR, directed the operation in the summer heat.

Hodges and his work partner, Kevin Swain, pushed the pile of oysters onto the barge with a front end loader. After the barge hauled its cargo to the destination point, a man aboard the barge fired a water cannon at the mound of shells, scattering them into the salt marsh at high tide.

It took only 20 minutes to lay the shells in about seven feet of water along a salt marsh bank. When the tide went out, the fruits of everyone's labor were obvious—a 390-yard line of human-planted oyster shells. It is expected to take about two years for a full row of mature oysters to develop.

Over the summer, the DNR set out to plant 10,000 bushels—or 550,000 pounds—of oyster shells in Beaufort waters, another 5,000 in Georgetown and 27,000 in Charleston.

Hodges said the program works—if the state has enough shells.

Without them, "we would see a decrease in the health of the oysters but also the health of the estuary, since they're so tied to habitat, water quality and all the ecosystem services that they provide," Hodges said. + Explorar mais

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2022 The State.

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