Progress 07/01/12 to 06/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary audience of the Billion Oyster Project are the citizens of New York City, in particular, public school students. Students at the New York Harbor School were the primary workforce responsible for the maintenance of the oyster nursery. Through their work, these students learned valuable industry skills including, but not limited to specific bivalve aquaculture techniques, project planning,budgeting and presentation skills that will be a value to them as they pursue college and careers after high school. The secondary audience for the work under this grant are the people who attended presentations and workshops, conducted by Harbor School students throughout the project period at Aquaculture and Oyster Restoration conferences up and down the east coast. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This program is educational in nature. As such their are many opportunities for training that are addressed above. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes. Through the participartion in Aquaculture and Oyster Restoration Conferences as mentioned above What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Since 2013, 54Harbor School upper classmen in the Aquaculture program worked to build, maintain, and operate the oyster nursery. This work required their mastery of Aquaculture specific skills that were also necessary learning targets for their progression through the Aquaculture Program of study at Harbor School. These skills includedspecific, hands-on tasks such as knot tying, grading oysters by size, constructing nursery trays, splicing lines and evaluating the health and growth of oysters over time. In addition to these specific career skills, students also conducted experiments to evaluate factors that affect the growth of oysters in the nursery developed an understanding of the biological systems at play. In this way the nursery served as a lens for teaching and learning that focused the knowledge and skills of both career and core academic classes through the narrative of oyster cultivation and restoration. 2. Students in the Aquaculture program of study developed professional skills in preparing for and presenting their work at a number of important industry and scientific conferences throughout the duration of the project. These conferences include the National Aquaculture Conference and Exposition in Milford, CT (2013) and in Portland ME (2015), the International Conference on Shellfish Restoration in SC (2015). Students also present annually to the Professional Advisory committee or PAC. The PAC is a group of professionals and post-secondary educators in the field of Aquaculture that advise on the program, curriculum and facilities. Through these presentations students learn to design PowerPoint presentations and use them to communicate their work. These presentations include the project design and budgeting aspects of the project in the form of business plans. These business plans served both to fulfill that Career and Financial Management requirements of the Aquaculture Program and as a capstone project for seniors. 3. Each spring students in the Aquaculture Program travel to the Fishers Island Oyster Farm on Fishers Island, NY. The purpose of the trip is to spend several days working on the farm and working together. This trip is integral to the development of these students as aquaculturists. Generally, students spend three days working on the farm and spend two nights on the Island. It is a huge challenge to give students experience with working farms due to our location in New York City. Through this grant students have the opportunity to work on our commercial scale farm and also work alongside actual professional oyster farmers. 4. It would not be possible to grow oysters on Governors Island if the work on the farm was limited to the school year calendar. Oysters are growing fastest during the summer and as a result need the most care during the warm months. In addition to their growth rate, other organisms attach to the oyster cages at a much higher rate during the late spring and early summer. These two factors combine to make the summer months the busiest on the oyster farm. In order to meet the handling requirements of the oysters on the farm, it is necessary to employ a workforce over the summer. It is of great value to the educational goals of the program to have students in the Aquaculture Program as the interns that fill this need during the summer months. Over the last three years 15 students have worked over the summer. Funding for this grant was used to leverage funding from the NYC Department of Education's Work Based Learning Program to increase the funding available for this program. As a result it was possible to hire both currently-enrolled students and alumni of the program to work the nursery over the summer. 5. Students in the 9th grade field class were able to visit the nursery on Governors Island in for the last three years of the grant period. These visits provided an introduction to the work of Aquaculture and helped the students to make a more informed choice in programs. During the spring of 2005, the entire 89th grade field class participated in two Billion Oyster Project filed cycles that required them to build cages, stock them with oysters and participate in the new field science protocols. During the selection process for CTE program following these cycles, almost half of the students in the freshman class chose Aquaculture first out of six programs. These results point to increased awareness and interest in Aquaculture provided by these experiences.
Publications
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Progress 07/01/13 to 06/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this project includes 430 students, 25 faculty and 18 staff of the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School. In particular 45 Aquaculture program upperclassmen were the direct beneficiaries of this project. Secondary beneficiaries included all other Harbor School students and numerous middle school students at oyster project partner schools. At these partner schools, 13 teachers were provided oysters grown by Harbor School students in the Wallabout Basin Nursery. Changes/Problems: Staffing Changes During the 2013-14 school year, Pete Malinowski continued to lead the Aquaculture department at Harbor School with assistance in the hatchery from Jeremy Esposito. Sam Janis and Luis Melendez continued as Restoration Program Manager and Restoration Program Coordinator, respectively. At the beginning of this 2014-15 school year, we had a number of important staffing changes: Pete left Harbor School to join the Foundation full time as Director of the Billion Oyster Project. This move will give Pete more time to develop and implement the Project. Jeremy left the Foundation to join Harbor School full time as an Aquaculture instructor. Jeremy will continue to manage the hatchery and to work on the Project with Pete. Susannah Ceraldi, a veteran high school science teacher, joined Harbor School to teach Aquaculture alongside Jeremy. She brings a traditional science background to the department. Luis will remain at Harbor, assisting Harbor School’s waterfront director on a part time basis, driving and maintaining boats that comprise Harbor School’s fleet of educational vessels What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project is an education project. Opportunities for training and are central to the project. Students are trained in the construction, operation and maintenance of a working, commercial-scale oyster nursery during their daily schedule of advanced aquaculture classes and workshops. This knowledge was evident during the spring trip to Fishers Island. Staff members working on the project were also trained in the maintenance of the nursery. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results of the Wallabout Basin Oyster Nursery and related activities have been disseminated widely through scientific presentations at aquaculture related conferences and events, as well as through Harbor School's local restoration project and its own public communications channels. The Billion Oyster Project Website (www.billionoysterproject.org), as well as the Twitter and Instagram feeds (both @billionoyster) have allowed for new audiences to develop over the last year. Along with Hudson River Foundation and NY/NJ Baykeeper, Harbor School is prime partner in the Oyster Restoration Research Project (ORRP). ORRP operates two permitted experimental reef plots throughout New York Harbor. All of the oysters for these projects Harbor School aquaculture students. Results of their oyster production systems – including total quantities, growth rate, fouling patterns, and other data – have been disseminated through ORRP partners and published in the ORRP Phase I technical report (Grizzle et al, 2013). Additionally more than 30 supporting partners and secondary organizations from across the NY Harbor region have participated and helped to disseminate the results of ORRP stocked with oysters grown in Harbor School nurseries. The results of the project have also been transmitted by Harbor School students' and faculty members' presentations three scientific and industry related conferences and several local workshops over the past year. These include NOAA's 6th Annual Restore Americas Estuaries Conference, Blue Vision Summit 2013, the Northeast Aquaculture Association Annual Conference, and local events taking place at the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? The 2014-2015 reporting period is expected to show the most dramatic growth in the oyster production through the Wallabout Oyster nursery. With the nursery construction complete, Harbor School has begun the outfitting of the new oyster hatchery located in building 134 on Governors Island and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Virginia Maitland Sachs, a 29-foot custom designed oyster cultivation and restoration vessel. With these pieces in place Harbor School Aquaculture students will work at the Wallabout nursery twice a week, every week through the month of November and starting again in April. The full 2.5 million animal production capacity of the system is expected to be reached during the late spring of 2014. As the program expands so will progress towards the goals outlined in the project narrative. It is expected that by the end of the 2014 grant year, all Harbor School freshmen will have toured the Wallabout nursery, 25 more students will travel and work at the Fishers Island Oyster farm and sixteen more students will present their work to industry professionals.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Significant progress was made towards the goals set forth in the project narrative. Nursery equipment was purchased, environmental and government permits were secured and the nursery was constructed and stocked with oysters. Currently the nursery is home to over 750,000 live animals. These oysters live in 600 supertrays, suspended from floats on a longline modeled after a commercial aquaculture facility. The construction work was conducted over Summer and Fall of 2012 in large part by New York Harbor School students and interns. Throughout the 2013-14 school year work focused on growing and stocking the oysters in the nursery. 1. After three years of development, the Aquaculture Program of Study at Harbor School was approved by the state as an accredited Career and Technical Education program. This accomplishment is partially due to the hands-on industry specific experience gained by students through their involvement in the Wallabout Oyster Nursery. 2. 20 Aquaculture upperclassman increased their knowledge and aquaculture skills by stocking the Wallabout Oyster nursery with oysters throughout the 2013-14 school year. The majority of the work on the nursery in 2012 was conducted in the upland hatchery facility at Harbor School. Broodstock was selected, conditioned and spawned in this facility to produce the animals that would be used to stock the nursery in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. For the first time in May, 2014, oysters were transferred directly from the remote setting tanks in the upland hatchery to the Wallabout nursery. In years past oysters have spent some months at the nursery on Governors Island before being transferred to the Wallabout nursery. The assumption was made that due to water quality constraints, the small oysters were safer on Governors Island. Results showed good survival of small (<2mm) oysters in the Wallabout nursery,. This is encouraging and will allow for increased oyster production during the spring of 2015. 3. Aquaculture seniors has a number of opportunities to present their work to professionals during the 2013-14 school year.. The first was during the annual New York Harbor School Professional Advisory Committee meeting on December 11th, 2013. Five Aquaculture seniors presented their work to members of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Aquaculture Extension Agents, a scientist from the Nature Conservancy, industry professionals and Natural Resource Instructors from Roger Williams University. The presentation consisted of an overview of our restoration project, details on bivalve production from floating nursery systems and a business plan for the preceding production season. A similar presentation was given by six seniors to attendees of a teacher training presentation given to high School teachers on Staten Island. Here the students’ role was to inform high school teachers about the project and how oysters are grown in New York Harbor. 4. 25 Aquaculture students increased their knowledge of the industry through a weekend-long overnight trip to the Fishers Island Oyster Farm on Fishers Island, New York. These students traveled to the oysters farm and spent the weekend as if they were employees of the operation. Students worked full, nine hour days and performed a number of typical oyster farming tasks including grading oyster larvae, transferring oysters from upwelling systems to growout cages, driving boats and harvesting adult oysters. The 2014 trip was the sixth trip made by Harbor School students to the Fishers Island Oyster Farm. These students’ experience working in the Wallabout nursery was evident during their time on the commercial oyster farm. Compared to years past, the students had a more complete understanding of nursery systems and techniques. All of the nine students that successfully completed the three-year program of study received their Aquaculture CTE certificate which required passing the industry approved technical assessment. 5. During the spring and summer of 2014 a number of Harbor School students and one graduate received stipends for their work on the Wallabout nursery and growing oysters on Governors Island. Two riding juniors and two rising seniors received stipends directly funded by this grant. In addition one Alumna, Derek Thompson was able to return to Harbor School to work alongside current students. Another 8 students received stipends from other organizations to work alongside those supported by this grant. These organizations included the New York Harbor Foundation and Columbia University. 5. All (110) ninth grade students were introduced to the project through tours of the aquaculture lab, lessons from aquaculture instructors and individual presentations from current aquaculture students. Freshman gained experience using microscopes, operating hatchery equipment, counting and measuring oysters from the nursery and maintaining nursery equipment. In the future ninth graders will travel to the Wallabout nursery.
Publications
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Progress 07/01/12 to 06/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this project includes 430 students, 25 faculty and 18 staff of the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School. In particular 45 Aquaculture program upperclassmen were the direct beneficiaries of this project. Secondary beneficiaries included all other Harbor School students and numerous middle school students at oyster project partner schools. At these partner schools, 13 teachers were provided oysters grown by Harbor School students in the Wallabout Basin Nursery. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project is an education project. Opportunities for training and are central to the project. Students are trained in the construction, operation and maintenance of a working, commercial-scale oyster nursery during their daily schedule of advanced aquaculture classes and workshops. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results of the Wallabout Basin Oyster Nursery and related activities have been disseminated widely through scientific presentations at aquaculture related conferences and events, as well as through Harbor School’s local restoration project and its own public communications channels. Along with Hudson River Foundation and NY/NJ Baykeeper, Harbor School is prime partner in the US EPA-funded Oyster Restoration Research Project (ORRP). ORRP operates five permitted experimental reef plots throughout New York Harbor. A majority of the oysters used to seed and re-stock these five experimental reef plots were grown by Harbor School aquaculture students. Results of their oyster production systems – including total quantities, growth rate, fouling patterns, and other data – have been disseminated through ORRP partners and published in the ORRP Phase I technical report (Grizzle et al, 2013). Additionally more than 30 supporting partners and secondary organizations from across the NY Harbor region have participated and helped to disseminate the results of ORRP stocked with oysters grown in Harbor School nurseries. The results of the project have also been transmitted by Harbor School students’ and faculty members’ presentations three scientific and industry related conferences and several local workshops over the past year. These include NOAA’s 6th Annual Restore Americas Estuaries Conference, Blue Vision Summit 2013, the Northeast Aquaculture Association Annual Conference, and local events taking place at the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? The 2013-2014 reporting period is expected to show the most dramatic growth in the oyster production through the Wallabout Oyster nursery. With the nursery construction complete, Harbor School has begun the outfitting of the new oyster hatchery located in building 134 on Governors Island and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Virginia Maitland Sachs, a 25-foot custom designed oyster cultivation and restoration vessel. With these pieces in place Harbor School Aquaculture students will work at the Wallabout nursery twice a week, every week through the month of November and starting again in April. The full 2.5 million animal production capacity of the system is expected to be reached during the late spring of 2014. As the program expands so will progress towards the goals outlined in the project narrative. It is expected that by the end of the 2014 grant year, all Harbor School freshmen will have toured the Wallabout nursery, 25 more students will travel and work at the Fishers Island Oyster farm and sixteen more students will present their work to industry professionals.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Significant progress was made towards the goals set forth in the project narrative. Nursery equipment was purchased, environmental and government permits were secured and the nursery was constructed and stocked with oysters. Currently the nursery is home to over 750,000 live animals. These oysters live in 600 supertrays, suspended from floats on a longline modeled after a commercial aquaculture facility. This work was conducted over Summer and Fall of 2012 in large part by New York Harbor School students and interns. 1. 45 Aquaculture upperclassman increased their knowledge and aquaculture skills by stocking the Wallabout Oyster nursery with oysters throughout the 2012 school year. The majority of the work on the nursery in 2012 was conducted in the upland hatchery facility at Harbor School. Broodstock was selected, conditioned and spawned in this facility to produce the animals that would be used to stock the nursery in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After spawning larvae was reared using industry standard techniques, remotely set on shells and then cultured at the floating nursery on Governors Island in preparation for transferring into the Wallabout nursery later into the year. In upcoming years, now that the nursery system in the Navy Yard is built out and the oysters are sufficiently large to be cultured in that location, more of the work will be at the nursery site in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 2. Aquaculture seniors had two opportunities to present project overviews including business plans to industry professionals. The first was during the annual New York Harbor School Professional Advisory Committee meeting on December 5th, 2012. Five Aquaculture seniors presented their work to members of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Aquaculture Extension Agents and Aquaculture and Natural Resource Instructors from Roger Williams University. The presentation consisted of an overview of our restoration project, details on bivalve production from floating nursery systems and a budget for the preceding production season. A similar presentation was given by six seniors to attendees of the National Aquaculture Conference and Exposition. This national aquaculture conference had a special focus on shellfish aquaculture and environmental restoration in 2012. This provided an ideal forum for Harbor School Aquaculture students. In total ten of 16 students presented to industry and higher education professionals. 3. 25 aquaculture students increased their knowledge of the industry through a weekend-long overnight trip to the Fishers Island Oyster Farm on Fishers Island, New York. These students traveled to the oysters farm and spent the weekend as if they were employees of the operation. Students worked full, nine hour days and performed a number of typical oyster farming tasks including grading oyster larvae, transferring oysters from upwelling systems to growout cages, driving boats and harvesting adult oysters. 4. No Aquaculture students received stipends through this grant during the summer of 2012. However three rising seniors and four rising juniors participated in an aquaculture internship through Harbor School’s Oyster Restoration Program during the summer of 2012. These students received stipends through other sources and spent their summers gaining valuable aquaculture experience through maintaining the floating nursery on Governors Island. Another eight Aquaculture students are spending the summer of 2013 working in the same internship. 5. All (110) ninth grade students were introduced to the project through tours of the aquaculture lab, lessons from aquaculture instructors and individual presentations from current aquaculture students. In the future ninth graders will travel to the Wallabout nursery.
Publications
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