The Billion Oyster Project

The Billion Oyster Project: HLFM Virtual Talk with Pete Malinowski

Sunday, June 6, 2021.

Time: 4 p.m.

Virtual Program.

The Atlantic oyster, Crassostrea virginica, has been part of the story of Fishers Island for the 8,000 years that it has been inhabited: from providing the earliest hunters and gathers with a nutrient-rich food source to today, where the Atlantic oysters farmed by Steve and Sarah Malinowski’s Fishers Island Farm are the island’s only commercial export.

However, there is another Fishers Island Oyster Farm export that is making waves approximately 111 miles west of Fishers Island—in New York City—and he is using that same Atlantic oyster to help bring positive environmental, educational and social change on a massive scale.

Join us Sunday, June 6th, for a virtual talk with Pete Malinowski, co-founder and Executive Director of the Billion Oyster Project (BOP), who will reveal how they have harnessed the power of oyster to restore and reclaim New York Harbor while educating and engaging New York City’s students and citizens in BOP’s mission and purpose. Restoring one billion oysters will make a big difference in New York Harbor, but that’s just a drop in the bucket of what was once there—and only half of the story.

BOP Executive Director Pete Malinowski. Courtesy of the Billion Oyster Project.

“Billion Oyster Project was founded on the belief that restoration without education is temporary, and that learning outcomes improve when students have the opportunity to work on real restoration projects. Beyond designing STEM curriculum for NYC schools through the lens of oyster restoration, BOP collects discarded oyster shells for reuse from 75 NYC restaurants, builds reef structures with volunteers, and engages Urban Assembly New York Harbor School students in large-scale projects. To date, BOP has planted 45 million oysters, restoring 12 acres of habitat at 15 reef sites, with the help of more than 6,000 students and 10,000 volunteers.”
– Pete Malinowski

We are thrilled to have Pete with us (virtually) to give the BOP’s many supporters on the island a chance to hear how the organization not only weathered the pandemic —but in the midst of it, how they built the largest reef in New York Harbor history by placing reef structures filled with 15 million oysters off of Soundview Park at the mouth of the Bronx River.

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86407340701
Or One tap mobile :
US: +16465588656,,86407340701#  or +13126266799,,86407340701#
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 646 558 8656  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 301 715 8592  or +1 669 900 9128  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 346 248 7799
Webinar ID: 864 0734 0701
International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbGu9JRF2e

High school students in NYC monitor the oysters at a Community Reef under the Manhattan Bridge. Photo: Benjamin Von Wong

Billion Oyster Project and New York Harbor School train NYC high school students to become scientific divers. Photo: Benjamin Von Wong.