What happened to the oyster industry in Raritan Bay? What’s the life cycle of an oyster? Why does the Living Breakwaters project have so many different kind of rocks? What is a ‘living breakwater’ to begin with?
Our frequent collaborators at the Billion Oyster Project recently released a public curriculum on Living Breakwaters—a series of physical breakwaters designed by SCAPE off the southern shore of Staten Island as part of the post-Hurricane Sandy competition Rebuild By Design and currently advancing toward implementation—that can guide teachers and students through these questions, as a 101 to coastal resilience and ecological infrastructure in the context of Raritan Bay.
The curriculum, funded by HUD and implemented by the NYS Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) is designed to introduce concepts related to coastal resilience; the history of the oyster industry in the NY-NJ Harbor; the life cycles of organisms in shallow bayland environments; micro-habitats incorporated into ‘reef streets’ as part of Living Breakwaters; and energy webs among the critters around the breakwaters.
For more information, visit the website, where you can read and download full lesson plans: