The annual rate of carbon dioxide emissions is 100 times faster than in the past 60 years mostly due to the burning of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide warms the Earth, acting as a greenhouse gas and allowing Earth to be warm enough for life. When too much carbon dioxide is in the air, it changes the composition of the air we breathe to make it where temperatures rise and make it harder to breathe.
The ocean takes on approximately 30% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and oysters play an important role in filtering carbon dioxide in the sea. They are filter feeders that can filter up to 30 gallons of water in a natural environment.
While oyster populations have seen an overwhelming decline efforts are being made to revitalize Pensacola’s filter feeders and restore our local waters. Thomas Derbes II, Santa Rosa County Sea Grant Agent and UWF marine biology graduate talked about the estuaries and oyster beds that have been built in Pensacola, Pensacola East and Blackwater Bay.
“We just got through winter, and we have those high and low tides, and the tide was far out one day,” Derbes said. “We looked, and we had oysters forming on the bottom which was cool cause that’s like what we naturally want, oysters on the bottom.”
Derbes was referring to the Pensacola Bay estuary that was built by creating shoreline islands in 2017 and can viewed from the Hawkshaw Lagoon Memorial Park. The oysters are starting to return but that does not mean they are safe enough to eat yet.
“The Department of Agriculture comes out to test the water either weekly or biweekly and they are testing for bacteria that could be indicating the presence of feces in the water,” Derbes said. “It doesn’t mean that there is it means that it could possibly be in the water.”
“The reason why these are closed is because they haven’t gotten a lot of testing done… after five years of testing they should be able to say yes, it is good to go, or no it’s not good to go.” Derbes said when asked about eating the oysters from the Pensacola Bay Estuary.
Blackwater and Perdido Bay have built 33 oyster beds in Pensacola East and Blackwater Bay with funds from a $13 million settlement from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The oyster beds are built by depositing limestone and oyster shells into the bays and they have worked. Pensacola East Bay has seen a 100% increase in its oyster population from 2022–2023.
Sea Grant Marine Program has been operating as an Escambia County extension with the University of Florida and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). Building and restoring estuaries and oyster beds to improve the health of our local waters.
