Saving Charleston’s Wildlife; One Expedition At A Time!

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Donating your time and money. Volunteering with any local wildlife foundation, nature preserve, aquarium, or educational program can be a huge step in the right direction. Your time spent helping to pick up trash, helping to care for injured wild animals, and spreading awareness can be a huge step in the right direction. if you don’t have time to donate, donate a few dollars to your favorite local wildlife foundation to keep them going and continue their good work.
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Pollution is a huge factor in what’s damaging our animal and plant life today. According to the South Carolina Aquarium, the ocean is projected to be filled with more plastic than fish come 2050. Help be apart of the solution to eliminate as much single-use plastic as possible.
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Choose locally sourced seafood instead of frozen seafood when you’re going out to eat or when buying it. Locally sourced seafood is responsibly harvested, and not depleting the oceans or oyster beds of necessary and important parts of our food chain or our ecosystem. Locally sourced purveyors respect the specimens they catch and think of the whole ocean’s ecological balance and not just growing their bank accounts.
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Join the conversation! While climate change has somehow become a controversial topic, it is one that needs to be faced head-on to help sustain our planet. Spoiler alert, this also includes keeping the quality of life for humanity as high as possible for as long as we can, too.
Charleston is known for its seafood and most importantly it’s known for its oysters. However, due to oysters being in such high demand, the natural oyster beds, the number of different species of oysters, and just the amount of oysters available have faced serious depletion. Thankfully to restaurants, oyster farmers, and conversationalists that keep locally sourced ideals in mind, this has all started to change. They have all realized that natural local oysters are doing more than just feeding Charleston. They are helping Charleston thrive, the waterways remain healthy, and provide a healthy habitat for the world around the oyster beds. New kinds of breeds of oysters are finally coming back to Charleston, more oysters are growing, and the oyster beds are looking better than they have in a very long time.
One of the biggest pushes in making this happen right here in Charleston is the restoration of the natural oyster beds. Multiple organizations are out there working hard every day with their team of researchers and volunteers to make this possible. Love oysters? That’s great! Once you enjoy your next dozen, don’t throw away your shells. Recycle them instead! According to the S.C Sea Grant Consortium, an oyster shell is the best foundation for young oysters looking for a home to latch onto. Thanks to the South Carolina Oyster Restoration and Enhancement Program (SCORE), these big changes in restoring the oyster beds to what they used to be are happening. What these teams of incredible scientists and volunteers do is place bushels of loose shells every year on top of local oyster bed sites across Charleston to help regrow and repopulate oyster reefs. According to Sea Grant, the reefs are growing at an exponential rate due to this work.
These oysters aren’t for you and me to enjoy, they’re used instead to help restore the ecosystem. While oysters offer huge health benefits to those who eat them, they also help clean the water they live in. Oysters act as natural filters and clean up the pollution left behind by fishermen, and both commercial and recreational activity on the water. The more natural oysters in our water, the cleaner it is. Without them, that ecosystem could go down the drain. According to Sea Grant, these oysters help stabilize the marsh, provide healthy habitats for the native fish, and the crab and shrimp found locally. Give back and save your shells or donate your time to one of these amazing organizations, like Sea Grant, to keep our oceans clean!
Thanks to the South Carolina Wildlife Foundation, our wildlife and plant life is being protected and preserved in even more unique ways today than they have ever been before. They love educating others just as much as we do, and we love them for it. One of our favorite ways they suggest giving back to nature and helping to preserve the native wildlife of South Carolina is to garden. That’s right, your favorite pastime could save our wildlife! With their help, you can turn any green space into a Certified Wildlife Habitat! All you need to do is research what wild and plant life can live in the areas you have to work in and provide a sustainable source of food, water, cover, and a place for these animals to raise their young. Cultivate an area that attracts native butterflies and bees, if you live close to a lake or pond, provide the above-listed elements to attract and care for wildlife native to these bodies of water, and do the same if you live close to the beach. Give back and provide to the natural world around you, and it will do the same for you. To learn more, follow the link below!