NEW OYSTER REEFS

Additional restitution funding from the 2010 BP Gulf Coast oil spill will allow more than 30 new oyster reefs to be built in the Pensacola region beginning this summer. The local reefs are just one of 21 projects in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Texas that will be paid for with 280 million dollars from the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund. Oysters are vital to health of area bays and estuaries because each individual oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day and the East Bay project is one of the largest oyster reef restoration projects in the state’s history.