Written by Michael Martin
Photography by Ford Benton and Michael Martin
On a late June morning, we joined Dr. Kayla Boyd, the Oyster Project Manager at the Mobile Baykeeper, for a ride on The Pelican. This boat is the largest vessel in their fleet that otherwise consists of shallow water skiffs intended to reach the far corners of their tidal creeks.
The Mobile Baykeeper organization began in 1997, but this oyster restoration project is just beginning. Restoring oysters across Mobile Bay is a daunting task that begins with deliberate steps. This year, those steps are happening in Heron Bay. “We’re building 28 reefs in Heron Bay that will provide larvae for the system over the next five years,” Boyd explains. “The plan is to build over 200 of these larval source reefs, from Bayou La Batre to Fort Morgan, and we will be monitoring these reefs every year making sure they are healthy and happy, and that we are doing as much as we can to keep them alive.”
The Pelican is loaded with burlap sacks and baskets full of recycled oyster shells donated by the surrounding oyster farms. Reef sites have been designated and permitted, and the shells are dumped overboard with the goal of creating an even 3-6 inch layer of shell across the bottom, which gives the oysters time to grow on the new reef before the silt layer catches up.
“The oyster populations in Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Sound have been declining for a long time.” Over a century’s worth of historical data and accounts overflowed from binders and files on Dr. Boyd’s desk. “There have been a lot of changes to our system, changes in salinity regimes, changes in siltation. We also have an influx of predators,” such as the oyster drill – a small predatory snail – that thrives as a result of higher salinity. Their approach to revive this ecosystem is all but simple: improve the number of baby (larval) oysters going into the system in the most prime locations to take hold and grow.
The public reefs for oyster harvest have struggled in recent years, “but the main part of this project is not making reefs that will provide for food. We are looking to restore system functionality…targeting tidal creeks to bring back source populations that have been degraded or completely lost for the last 20 to 50 years.” This approach will, in turn, not only benefit the public oyster harvest for consumption, but benefit the greater ecosystem as a whole. Boyd also explains that, because oysters function as filter feeders, they can help remove sediment and excess nutrients from the water, which can improve water quality and help revive habitat used by juvenile fish in those same tidal creeks.
Dr. Boyd introduced us to Jackie Wilson of Bama Bay Oyster Farm, who has turned her focus from commercial oyster farming to the production of larval and adult oysters for use in this restoration project. Wilson is working to help set the example of what cooperation can look like between commercial farmers and the Baykeepers. Waterfront property owners in Mobile Bay can also get involved through the community engagement program, which offers oyster gardens and shell strings to foster larval recruitment if the conditions are suitable. As of 2026, they have 55 piers enrolled in the program, which is providing vital data “to figure out how far north the oysters can currently live in the Bay, the changes in salinity, and where [larval oysters] are naturally spawning in the system.”
You can learn more about the Mobile Baykeeper Oyster Restoration project at https://mobilebaykeeper.org/oysters/.
