Energy &
Environment
Military
turns to oyster reefs to protect against storms
MIDDLETOWN,
N.J.
Earle Naval Weapons Station,
where the Navy loads some of America’s most
sophisticated weapons onto warships, suffered $50 million worth of damage in
Superstorm Sandy. Now the naval pier is fortifying itself with some decidedly
low-tech protection: oysters.
The
facility has allowed an environmental group to plant nearly a mile of oyster
reefs about a quarter-mile off its shoreline to serve as a natural buffer to
storm-driven wave damage.
Other
military bases are enlisting the help of oysters, too. In June, environmental
groups and airmen established a reef in the waters of Elgin Air Force Base
Reservation in Florida, and more are planned nearby. Oysters also help protect
Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.
Three
oyster reefs protect the USS Laffey museum in South Carolina. And military
installations in Alabama and North Carolina have dispatched their enlisted
personnel to help build oyster reefs in off-base coastal sites.
They
are among hundreds of places around the U.S. and the world where oyster reefs
are being planted primarily as storm-protection measures. And a bill just
introduced in Congress would give coastal communities $100 million over the
next five years to create “living shorelines” that include oyster reefs.
US Navy uses
Oyster Reefs to Fortify Piers
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Navy-Uses-Oyster-Reefs-to-Fortify-Piers-20171227-0010.html