Veterans, service members help restore oysters and clean water

By Caroline Foreback

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    BALTIMORE, Maryland (WJZ) — A group of veterans and active-duty service members from across the country got their hands dirty for a cause that’s helping them heal and helping the Chesapeake Bay thrive.

At Parrish Creek Landing in Shady Side on Tuesday, veterans and active-duty service members helped the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) add more oysters to Maryland waters.

CBF oyster restoration coordinator Kellie Fiala said oysters provide habitat for aquatic life and are essential to the overall health of the bay.

“An adult oyster can filter many gallons of water a day,” Fiala said.

How are the volunteers helping the Chesapeake Bay?

The group helped process recycled oyster shells that will be used to grow new baby oysters – called spat.

“It is manual work,” said Fiala. “It’s all part of the job, but it gets people out.”

These volunteers don’t shy away from hard work.

“They understand mission, they understand purpose,” participant Garrett Robinson said. “They understand, ‘Let’s go get this done because it matters.'”

Working as a team, they filled more than a dozen cages, each of them holding about 1,000 pounds of shell.

“Which we’re quantifying as around 2 million oysters that these will become home for,” Fiala said.

When they’re ready, the oysters will be planted onto sanctuary reefs in the bay.

Partnerships at work These veteran volunteers are part of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) Armed Forces Initiative (AFI) – an organization that helps military members navigate PTSD and traumatic brain injury through outdoor experiences.

“There’s a restorative aspect of that – getting out there, there’s a lot of peace, tranquility,” said AFI volunteer and Marine Corps veteran Garrett Robinson.

Robinson said participants also find purpose through conservation efforts like this.

“So that a generation from now, people can still go out on that water and go fishing because of the work I did today,” Robinson said.

Fiala said it’s been a “special partnership” working with AFI.

“These are service members that have and are currently still giving their time for our country, and we appreciate them taking the time to come and help out an organization like us with the work that we’re doing,” Fiala said.

After their Maryland oyster restoration event, the group will travel down the Eastern Shore for various fishing expeditions and complete their trip at CBF’s Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach on July 17.

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