Oyster-Crete;

Basically it is a mix of organic compounds mixed together to create a natural, habitual environment to help regrow degraded oyster reefs or even build new oyster reefs.
The ingrediants and concept of oystercrete is ¹ Sand, ²Crushed Oyster Shells and ³Portland Cement used as a binder for the ingrediants.
The basic ideaology for oystercrete is to create as natural as possible product for oyster larvae to attach thus providing a base product for furhter development into a larger or a new oyster reef. The use of the crushed osyter shells as compared to just cement is because of the high calcium content of oyster shells the larval stages of oysters are more apt to attach and use this substrate. This has been proven over the years with several projects and researches done thruout the U.S. and abroad as well as by The Nature Conservancy.
We have taken this basic concept one step further to actually test and design a rock base made from the oystercrete ingrediants that greatly enhances the oppurtunities for oyster larvae to attache.

In years past, it has been an acceptable practice to dump barge loads of old oyster shell across flats or existing oyster reefs to help restablish natural oyster growth. The few problems with this is, the small size of opened oyster shells is easily silted back in by natural and artificial wave actions as well as river flows and currents as most of the oyster reefs along the mississippi coast are located along the tidal zones around river and back bay flow area's.
We have create a unique style with our oystercrete rocks that creates natural eddy's to help capture the loose floating larvae, high enough to help diminish the effects of silting and heavy enough not to become dislodged or moved by natural currents or wave action.
The rocks profile also lends itself to the matured reef still be acceptable to harvesting by rake methods.

With our various profile build styles we have designs for high flow and high tidal surge areas, low water flow esturarian area's, and even high current river area's. With our adaptablility to create designs with our product to fit your particular needs, we can deliver your next OysterCrete reef when and where you need it.

Research for this page was conducted by H₂Oasis over a 3 year period.