Our Impact
Everyone loves the water. Whether in the form of a lake, river, or the vast ocean itself, we all enjoy it for as many different reasons as one can imagine. Some go there for work, others for fun. It is even used indirectly by many people every day for shipping of goods and materials as well.
Whatever the connection may be for you personally, we at Buzzards Bay Oysters recognize that our planet is indeed a blue one. About 71% of Earth is covered in water, and tiny microscopic algae in the ocean called phytoplankton are estimated to produce up to 85% of the air that we breathe. As terrestrial beings, we may often find ourselves forgetting about the better majority of our Earth and exactly how much we rely upon it.
However, the water is undeniably the most important ecosystem we have as a planet, and Buzzards Bay Oysters aims to do our part to keep our ocean in the most natural, healthy condition as possible.
Oysters and other bivalve shellfish have been shown to be somewhat of environmental workhorses. They are what is known as a filter feeder, meaning they draw-in water to collect microscopic phytoplankton particles from it for food, before expelling the rest as waste. By doing this, they are able to filter an average of 50 gallons of water per day!
As the oysters feed, they remove excess nitrogen from the water column which could otherwise lead to eutrophication events. Even better, they are simultaneously improving water clarity through the collection of phytoplankton for food. Overall, they are keeping the water healthy as they eat, and they keep us healthy as we eat them.