How do oysters clean water? Effort to clean South Floridas waterways NBC 6 South Florida [Video]

Port Everglades gathered community volunteers to help improve the quality of South Florida’s waterways with the help of oyster shells.

The oyster shells were previously shucked and used, donated from restaurants outside Broward County. Now they’re being prepped to be thrown back into the waterways to clean the water.

Volunteers drilled holes in the oyster shells and strung them through wire, creating ropes to hang in waterways in Fort Lauderdale private residences and the New River.

“When oysters are babies, they swim, and when they find a place they like to live and they put down a base, they’ll settle on a shell,” said Erik Neugaard of Port Everglades. “We’re gonna take these oyster shells when the babies are bigger and we’re gonna create oyster beds in areas where they used to be.”

Land development was cited as one of the main reasons behind destroying habitats where oyster shells once …