City Island has an oyster reef project of its own, and on two Saturdays in November it needs volunteers to fill shell bags. City Island Oyster Reef, a nonprofit founded on the island in 2019, is holding shell bagging sessions on November 7 and November 14, the last hands-on work days on its 2026 calendar.

The group works in Eastchester Bay, the water between City Island and the Pelham Bay shore, and its aim is restoration, not harvest. The oysters it grows are meant to filter the bay's water and give fish and other marine life a place to live. None of them are for eating.

What the reef is made of

The project builds reefs from concrete reef balls in three sizes, as the group describes them on its research page: the Low-Pro at 155 pounds, the Bay Ball at 500 pounds and the Goliath at 5,000 pounds. Young oysters, called spat, settle on the balls and grow into a living reef.

The plans call for about 33 million spat at Delmour's Point and about 20 million at Pilot Cove, two spots off the island. City Island Oyster Reef is working through the federal and state approvals that work in the bay requires, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Closer to shore, the group is planning a pilot reef built by the community at The Living Shoreline, its outdoor learning center.

Why shell bagging matters

Oyster larvae settle most readily on old oyster shell, so the shells from restaurant plates are the raw material for a new reef. City Island Oyster Reef collects shells from partner restaurants from May through November. Volunteers then pack the cleaned shell into mesh bags that go into the water as places for spat to attach.

The numbers on the group's site give a sense of the scale so far: more than 26,500 volunteer hours, and 53,830 pounds of shell kept out of the trash and recycled into habitat.

Other ways to take part

  • Shell bagging, November 7 and November 14.
  • Oyster and water quality monitoring, which runs from May through September each year.
  • Internships for students.
  • Donations, and the group's annual events.

How to sign up

Volunteer sign-up and the event details for both November sessions are on City Island Oyster Reef's events page. City Island is reached by the Bx29 bus from the Pelham Bay Park station on the 6 train.

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