Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor has launched the fifth year of its Community Oyster Gardening Program, continuing the effort to restore shellfish populations and improve water quality throughout Hempstead Harbor.
More than 75,000 spat-on-shell Eastern oysters were delivered Tuesday from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s shellfish hatchery in Southold. The oysters will be raised in cages at North Hempstead Beach Park, Tappen Marina, Sea Cliff Yacht Club and Hempstead Harbour Club before being planted in a state-approved conservation management area in the harbor.
The new oysters join more than two million oysters that have been planted in Hempstead Harbor since 2022 through the coalition’s community oyster gardening program and an Environmental Protection Agency community grant.
“This year, being our fifth year of the program, is a really special milestone,” Sarah Stromski, the coalition’s environmental monitor and project manager for the program, wrote in a statement on July 6. “It’s clear that community members care deeply about Hempstead Harbor and want to see it thriving.”
About 80 volunteers are expected to participate this season, according to the coalition. Volunteers will work in teams from July through September, cleaning oyster cages, monitoring growth and learning about oyster restoration. The program continues to operate at the same four locations as last year (Tappen Beach Marina, Sea Cliff Yacht Club, North Hempstead Beach Park and the Hempstead Harbor Club), with volunteers including community members, students and corporate groups.
Michelle Lapinel-McAllister, the coalition’s programs director, said the organization has expanded its oyster growing infrastructure by adding another cage this season, giving the shellfish more room to grow.
She added that the the long-term goal extends beyond increasing oyster numbers.
“We know that the oysters that have been planted are doing really well,” Lapinel-McAllister said. “We want to make an oyster reef, and we’re not there yet, but a lot of oysters have gone in… we want them to grow, keep reproducing, and cleaning the water.”
Oysters are natural water filters, removing potentially hazardous chemicals like nitrogen from the water at a rate of roughly 50 gallons per day.
Lisa Cashman, the coalition’s programs director, emphasized that the benefits of oyster restoration reach beyond improving water quality, reiterating that the oysters forming a natural reef provides habitats for other local fish and marine life.
“We’re hoping that the oysters create an ecosystem that can promote biodiversity,” she said, “which also has its own impacts, but takes some time.”
For the past four years, divers from Cornell Cooperative Extension have monitored oysters previously planted in Hempstead Harbor and found they remain healthy and continue to thrive. Lapinel-McAllister added that oysters typically take about three years to fully mature, making the restoration effort a long-term investment in the harbor’s ecological health.
For more information on the coalition, their work and how to get involved, visit CoalitionToSaveHempsteadHarbor.org.
