Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Bayshore Beautiful

Domes to be homes for oysters and such

To help clean Hillsborough Bay's water, 120-pound concrete habitats for sea-filtering animals are installed.

By SHERRI DAY
Published May 6, 2005

Thomas Lawwell was supposed to be on vacation.

Retired computer programmer Charlie Cushing would have been enjoying a quiet morning at home.

But Tuesday morning both men waded through thigh-high water in an attempt to improve the quality of Hillsborough Bay.

As volunteers with the environmental group Tampa Bay Watch, they helped place oyster domes in the bay off Bayshore Boulevard near Hawthorne Road.

Weighing about 120 pounds each, the domes are designed to form habitats for oysters and other sea-filtering animals, which group leaders hope will naturally clean the water. The domes also protect the bay's seawall from stormwater damage by acting as a wave buffer and serve as a sanctuary for other marine and animal life, Tampa Bay Watch officials said.

Positioning the concrete domes was no easy task. First a crane lifted four domes across the Bayshore Boulevard balustrade and into the water. Volunteers snaked a pole through holes in each dome and placed them in a crescent-shape design about a foot apart along the sea floor near three stormwater portals.

About an hour into the job, Cushing said the work was "very physical" but a small price to pay to help spruce up the bay.

"I sail a lot so I see that it could be a lot prettier," said Cushing, 61, precariously perched atop an 18-inch high dome.

The dome project is Tampa Bay Watch's third environmental project in the Hillsborough Bay near Bayshore. In the past few years, the group helped restore a sand spit to protect a wildlife habitat, board member Mike Flynn said. They also placed oyster domes near the seawall at Ballast Point Park in an attempt to stabilize the shoreline.

For its current project, Tampa Bay Watch used about 40 volunteers over two days to deploy 300 oyster domes. Several organizations, including the Shell Marine Habitat Program, Restore America's Estuaries and the General Electric Foundation, helped fund the $15,000 project. Rinker Materials, a concrete company, donated a crane and workers to help move the domes from a truck into the water.

"It's pretty dirty water we're wading around in," Tampa Bay Watch executive director Peter A. Clark said. "We want to make it cleaner."

Sherri Day can be reached at 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 5, 2005, 01:31:12]