Oyster shells are post-meal waste for most Americans, left behind on the plates, swept into the bin, and gone. However, they might be the start of something completely different along the coast of Louisiana. National Geographic's 2003 report on the oyster-reef restoration in Louisiana notes that volunteers and community groups placed nearly 13 million pounds of discarded oyster shells to create over 8,000 feet of “living shoreline,” which is like using oyster shells as a physical barrier against an increasingly vulnerable coastline. The concept is simple: leave the shell in place, for the oysters to grow on it and for the reef it creates to act as a countermeasure to erosion.
