Seafood is facing increasing pressures that challenge sustainability. Overfishing, pollution, and our growing appetite for fish are taking a serious toll. One organization turning things around is the Oyster Recovery Partnership. Its Shell Recycling Alliance collects 7 million discarded oyster shells each year from restaurants and raw bars throughout the mid-Atlantic and uses them to create habitats for young fledgling oysters at a state hatchery in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Bay was once rich with oysters; 100 years ago, more than 10 million bushels would be harvested from its waters annually. Today, thanks to disease, habitat loss to sediment pollution, and overfishing, wild oyster populations have been reduced to one percent of their historical peak.

Annapolis, Maryland-based Oyster Recovery Partnership is working to turn the tide. This year alone, they introduced more than half a billion baby oysters (spats) into Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries--all of them attached to cleaned, recycled oyster shells. The shells provide shelter, creating artificial reefs. Their goal is to eventually reintroduce 2 billion fledgling oysters a year.

Besides helping sustain seafood, the Character Approved Oyster Recovery Partnership's efforts improve water quality; a single mature oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. So they're not just replenishing a delicious, sustainable seafood source--they're helping return Chesapeake Bay to good health.

[Images: The Nature Conservancy, Oyster Recovery Partnership]