TIERRA VERDE, Fla. — 25 volunteers, including Tampa Bay 28 meteorologists, Jason Adams, met up at Tampa Bay Watch in Tierra Verde to make oyster reef balls. These balls create artificial reefs that do several important things to help our beautiful estuary, which we call Tampa Bay.
These reef balls create new homes for oysters. Oysters are amazing at filtering the water. The more oysters, the better the water quality! Oysters also help in combating algal blooms such as red tide. Oyster populations around the world have dropped 85-90%! And yes, that includes our waters in Tampa Bay.
Watch video of Jason Adam volunteering with Tampa Bay Watch
The reefs also work to mitigate wave action from storms and boats. This helps minimize and even eliminate erosion on various beaches and coastlines in Tampa Bay. Some islands have seen hundreds of feet of shoreline restored since these began being placed in Tampa Bay.
The volunteers today demolded new reefs created by the last team of volunteers. Those will be sent to various locations in Tampa Bay. Some of these places include Fantasy Island and MacDill AFB.
The team then made new molds of the oyster reef balls that will take a few days to cure and then will be added to the dozens of other reef balls that will eventually end up in Tampa Bay.
If you would like more information on how you can help, go here
New mental health programs making an impact in Florida
Florida Behavioral Health Association's Scott Burgess shared with Tampa Bay 28 Anchor Wendy Ryan the successes of new initiatives being tested across Florida.
