MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — (AP) — Volunteers are helping to build a 65-foot oyster reef off the South Carolina coast in the Charleston area.
The effort this week involves members of the Department of Natural Resource’s SCORE program, which does habitat restoration projects, WCIV-TV reported.
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It’s expected to take 350 bags of shells to construct the reef.
Benefits of oyster reefs include bolstering the shoreline and providing habitat for more than 100 species in South Carolina, the TV station reported.
“There are all these organisms that are coming to this reef for some function and if we didn’t have these oyster reefs our populations of animals wouldn’t be so high, they’d have to search a little harder for food,” said Wildlife Biologist Michael Hodges.
The reef will be near the U.S.S. Yorktown aircraft carrier at Patriots Point.