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The salt marshes together
with the oyster beds and shellfish beds together with
the eel grasses were actually collaborating. They were not
competing there were actually exchanging the energy,
the water, the food and supporting
coexistence. In this case the species of beautiful fiddler crabs that [make] all these
little holes here [are]
actually homes of the fiddler crabs.
Here you can see a
vast number of ribbed mussels
and in Savin Hill Cove - the degraded site - we could maybe count them on one hand.
Here, actually every time we come - this is now the third season -
we are seeing more and more species [as] the collaboration is really working. The
ribbed mussels and fiddler crabs [are] one of the
major bioturbation species
because they live in the sediment and are constantly working in the mud
bringing oxygen and harvesting
the nutrients. That is why - in this area - you only have a little bit of
organic matter that can support
ulva and algae. Basically they are
all trying to use a lot of nutrients [or] foods; they are sharing the food that comes
with the tide
and they filter feed - [i.e] oysters and [ribbed] mussels -
and everybody has enough.
Every season, this is the third season we are finding more and more species
we are hoping that by improving the habitats for them
and also not harvesting as much as we
usually do - that is why sanctuaries
are supposed to be sanctuaries, for species to thrive
and not only live a couple years. We allow oysters to live only a few years - two
or three years -
and then we harvest them. Here you can see how
they coexist - there is a little tiny crab attacking me here.
You have a beautiful species
of ribbed mussel and oyster attached to it.
So the oysters, when they are 2-3 years old or about three inches big -
we harvest them. But some species of oysters can live
up to eighty years. So if we could just leave them long enough
to establish their habitat and also
to provide a habitat for other species,
I think this whole restoration process would be much more successful.