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Oyster Hunters

The terminus of Sausal Creek isn't the first place you'd think to look for oysters. The stream's "mouth" is a huge round concrete culvert just a few yards from the Fruitvale Avenue drawbridge, which connects East Oakland and Alameda.

The area nearby is covered by industrial and commercial buildings in varying degrees of disrepair, not the life-giving wetlands of yore. But Save the Bay and the Friends of Sausal Creek have just begun a monitoring project to see if the channel is home to a remnant population of Ostrea lurida, native California oysters. Dangling inconspicuously from the substructure of the drawbridge are what look like strands of clothesline trailing into the water. Just below the surface, and threaded like beads along each one, are about a dozen oyster shell halves. Save the Bay's Marilyn Latta pulls one of the strings from the water, and examines the underside of each shell for spat, or immature oysters, which may have drifted by and managed to attach themselves to this artificial "reef."

It's only been a week since they were hung, so she's not surprised that the shells are still quite clean. But for the next few months, volunteers from the creek group will regularly check in at the Fruitvale Bridge, noting the presence of any new oysters, measuring the temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen, and checking for nitrates and phosphates as well.

If conditions prove favorable, volunteers may later try seeding the dangling shells with larval oysters. Ultimately, says Latta, such efforts could help to rebuild decimated oyster colonies throughout the Bay. She stresses, however, that this is not an attempt to revive a commercial oyster industry. Instead, it's aimed at restoring a formerly abundant species that also helps keep the Bay clean by filter feeding.

Save the Bay wants to work with creek and wetland groups throughout the Bay Area in similar projects. The project is being funded by a NOAA Community Based Restoration Grant. Other partners include San Francisco State, U.C. Davis and Cal Fish & Game.

The benefits extend beyond the collection of scientific data, says Stuart Richardson of the Friends of Sausal Creek. His volunteers have focused on restoring an area three miles upstream of the creek mouth, and he acknowledges that it can be difficult for them to see that their work also affects conditions at the mouth of the creek. "We need to help make the creek to Bay connection," he says.

Latta says her groups focus has been just the opposite - "We're always down in the Bay" - and encouraging upstream restoration work will have a long term positive effect on water quality in wetland areas and beyond.

Besides, asks Richardson, "How many times in your life do you get to climb out onto a bridge?"
Contact: Marilyn Latta (510)452-9261 O'B

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