A piece of news from New York in 2019 finally revealed the real reason why the United States has bought oysters at a price of $5,000/ton for many years and dumped them back into the sea. It turned out to be to save New York Harbor.
Can a ton of oyster shells sell for 5,000 yuan?
Yes, the United States even recycles 680,000 kilograms of oyster shells at this price every year, and it pays a lot of money to recycle them to save New York Harbor.
New York is known as the "Oyster Capital", and oysters are oysters. There used to be billions of oysters here, accounting for almost half of the world's oysters. What happened to New York Harbor, and oyster shells are needed to save it?
This has to start from the 19th century. At that time, because there were too many oysters in the United States and the price was cheap, it was very popular to eat oysters, so from street stalls to bars to high-end restaurants, there was no place for sale.
There is a New York chef who likes oysters, and he even wrote a cookbook about oysters. There are as many as 150 pages about the practice of oysters.
But no amount of oysters can stand eating like this, and after entering the 20th century, the industrial development of New York has seriously polluted water resources. These reasons have led to fewer and fewer oysters in New York Harbor. By the middle of the 20th century, There are few wild oysters left, and New York Harbor is becoming increasingly polluted.
But the Americans at the time did not realize the seriousness of the problem, and only lamented that oysters were getting worse and worse.
It was not until 2014 that a non-profit environmental organization in the United States launched a campaign called "One Billion Oysters to Save New York Harbor" that gradually made Americans gradually realize the importance of oyster shells.
Oysters are filter feeders, and their shells can act as a natural water filter. An adult oyster can purify up to 190 liters of water a day, which means they are vital to the water quality of New York Harbor. effect.
The lack of oysters in New York Harbor leads to poor water quality, which in turn leads to fewer oysters, creating a vicious cycle between the two.
Not only that, the reef area formed by the shells of oysters can also provide habitats for other aquatic organisms. Once there are more aquatic organisms, other organisms will also increase, and the diversity of species in the water can be enriched, and the water quality can be improved.
In addition, the Oyster Reef area is also a natural levee for New York Harbor. It must be known that New York is located on the east coast of the United States, and hurricanes often occur.
The oyster reef area used to act as a natural barrier to reduce the power of hurricanes, and the lack of these oyster shells makes these hurricanes even more destructive. The hurricane and heavy rain that hit New York on September 5, 2021 caused at least $50 million in damage to residential property and infrastructure.
So Americans had to give up catching wild oysters, start artificial breeding, and put oyster seedlings in New York Harbor.
However, there is no oyster reef in the water, and there is no place for oyster larvae to attach, and the growth rate is very slow. It may take the year of the monkey to return to the previous level. Therefore, the environmental protection organization decided to collect the oyster shells in the restaurant and put them into the sea.
When there are more oyster shells, oyster larvae not only have a place to grow, but also attract other wild oysters to gather together, so that the recovery speed of oysters can also become faster.
When there are more wild oysters, the water quality will become better. With better water quality, there will be more wild oysters. In this way, a virtuous circle will be formed again. At the same time, the oyster reef will also reduce the loss of hurricanes, which can be said to serve multiple purposes.
