Indian River Lagoon Research Institute Hosts Workshop to Construct Oyster Mats

Florida Tech’s Indian River Lagoon Research Institute welcomed students from the Bisk College of Business and Melbourne Central Catholic (MCC) to Crawford Green this month for a workshop to make oyster mats.

The volunteers, including more than three dozen students from MCC, assembled 40 mats. Those will be added to mats that volunteers constructed in December in a similar Florida Tech event and all will be installed at the dock of the residential community Aquarina in Melbourne Beach as part of the Living Docks program, according to Robert Weaver, associate professor and IRLRI director.

The Living Docks is an initiative of the IRLRI to increase benthic habitat in the Indian River Lagoon. Benthic filter feeders (e.g. oysters, mussels, barnacles, sponges, sea squirts, etc.) serve as the livers and kidneys of our coastal water bodies, filtering the water to improve water quality.