SHOALS

Students Helping Oysters
& Living Shorelines

CBA offers a hands-on, place-based aquaculture program to area high school students known as Students Helping Oysters and Living Shorelines (SHOALS). Our professional development model will teach educators in high school how to implement lessons about seagrass and ecosystem restoration in their local environment. The initiative provides students with several hands-on activities and lessons that foster their understanding of living shoreline ecology and the estuarine habitat.

What Does the Program Encompass?

SHOALS encompasses both field experiences and in-class assignments.  Field work introduces students to living shoreline restoration by assisting with reef construction and planting submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) to provide critical habitats in Choctawhatchee Bay. Classroom topics include oyster dissection, restoration methods, water quality lessons, and growing SAV.

SAVing the Bay

In the SAVing the Bay component of SHOALS, CBA collects and salvages SAV (you may know it as “seagrass”) and brings it to classrooms for students to grow out for habitat restoration. SAV is an important building block for a better bay. Considering adding a dock to your property over existing seagrass beds? Contact CBA to salvage and transplant the seagrass from inside the piling footprints.