New Living Shoreline Exhibit Brings the Bay to Life

For over thirty years, Tampa Bay Watch has served as stewards of the watershed, dedicated to the conservation and restoration of our local marine and wetland environments. As important to their mission as the projects they spearhead is education and outreach – and since 2020, the Tampa Bay estuary has had an immersive, interactive advocate in the 3,000-square-foot Discovery Center on the St. Pete Pier.  

The Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center has a sweet nostalgia factor for anyone with an affinity for The Pier Aquarium of the old, inverted triangle. In this brighter, more accessible space, Tampa Bay Watch engages visitors from all over the world with exhibits connecting them to Tampa Bay’s ecosystem. Their newest exhibit will be a permanent fixture: Living Shorelines: Protecting Homes for Bay Babies.  

The living shorelines initiative is a signature program for Tampa Bay Watch. It is a natural approach to erosion control blending strategic placement of plants, stone, sand, and other organic materials to protect and enhance coastal habitats. This method offers a sustainable alternative to traditional, hard-engineered structures, supporting biodiversity and maintaining vital coastal processes. The exhibit is “an amazing new tool to show people what our living shorelines actually look like,” says Leah Biery, executive director of education for Tampa Bay Watch. “Before we had this exhibit, we had some pictures and we were doing our best to explain in conversation in front of field trip groups what a living shoreline is, but there’s nothing like being able to actually see it life-size, peek inside the [oyster] reef balls, see that there are animals in there, see what the shell bags look like, and just get more hands on with it.”

Being able to see and touch the components of a living shoreline is very illuminating.  Particularly impactful is the side-by-side of two oyster reef balls (or ORBs): one newly unmolded and one fully colonized. A single ORB weighs approximately 200 pounds and provides a hard substrate for the settlement and growth of native oysters. The structures themselves will effectively break up strong waves and reduce erosion, an important protection and mitigation effort against hurricanes. When colonized by dense oyster reefs, which hard-engineered structures like seawalls don’t attract, ORBs foster biodiversity and promote natural water filtration. According to Biery, “Each adult oyster can filter 50 gallons of water every day, so when you add them all up, these projects do an enormous amount to clean the water in Tampa Bay.” Considering a single oyster reef ball can host 100 or more oysters – and as of December 2024, Tampa Bay Watch has installed over 18,000 ORBs – that is no exaggeration.

Also included in this interactive exhibit is an original animated short film that highlights the vital role of living shorelines in safeguarding Tampa Bay’s estuary, one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. And since one of the important benefits of living shorelines is supporting the growth of marine life, there is a special tank in the exhibit featuring some of the smaller species that would use an oyster reef ball as habitat. “There’s the spider crab in the back – it’s all covered in algae,” Biery points out. “And the blenny. The blenny is neat, too. [The inhabitants of the tank] will change occasionally, so every time people come back, there will be a few different species to check out.”

For visitors wanting an even more interactive experience, Biery says, “We recently added a VOG workshop to our public program calendar.” A VOG is a Vertical Oyster Garden, a rope strung with recycled oyster shells that is suspended into the water. Juvenile oysters, or spat, like to attach themselves to adult oyster shells. As the spat mature into adult oysters, they – as well as the many small fish, crabs, and shrimp living among them – become a vital food source for an array of birds and fish. “People can come see this exhibit, and then they can come in the back and help us build a vertical oyster garden that they can either take home with them or donate back to us to hang on a dock somewhere in Tampa Bay,” Biery says.

Tampa Bay Watch currently provides VOGs to the public at no cost, no assembly required. The building blocks of these hanging estuarine enhancements come from Tampa Bay Watch’s Shells for Shorelines program: partnering with local restaurants like Doc Ford’s, Island Grille and Raw Bar, Coco’s Crush, and with the annual Tampa Oyster Fest, to recycle their oyster shells into living shoreline projects. By the end of last year, Tampa Bay Watch had recycled 230,000 pounds of oyster shells with their restaurant partners.

Tampa Bay Watch’s robust programming and restoration projects engage over 10,000 people a year, from kids to volunteers, and they are always eager to welcome more. Biery hopes the Living Shorelines exhibit helps people to understand what a Tampa Bay Watch restoration project looks like and how it benefits Tampa Bay. But she is also hopeful it will inspire people to connect with the organization more deeply – as volunteers, donors, or by attending events. The exhibit, and the Discovery Center as a whole, are geared towards both tourists and repeat visits from residents.

“We have a team of really knowledgeable people here always – at the front desk, in the classroom, wandering around the exhibit – and we love to answer questions and engage with our visitors,” she says. “If anyone has questions about Tampa Bay, we’re a resource for them. We want people to come talk to us about the Bay and find out how they might get involved.” 

Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center is on the approach to the St. Pete Pier. Learn more at tbwdiscoverycenter.org or call 727-291-4103.