New Living Shoreline on BHI

By Allison Polinski, Coastal Scientist

We are excited to announce that our new living shoreline was installed at Marina Park on February 24, 2025! BHI Conservancy collaborated with Sandbar Oyster Company, the Village of BHI, the NC Coastal Federation, and the Johnston Center for Coastal Sustainability to make this happen. Staff and volunteers were eager to team up and get muddy to get the work done. Marina Park is a great location for a living shoreline because there is erosion along the shoreline by the bulkhead due to boat wakes and sea level rise.

Two layers of tables are interlocked and sunk into the sediment with one layer of pillows in between them to create the stable reef framework.  

A living shoreline is a nature-based approach to shoreline stabilization and protection. A living shoreline is a protected, stabilized coastal edge made of natural materials; for example, oyster reefs, marshes, or dunes. Unlike hardened bulkheads or seawalls, living shorelines can move through time. Living shorelines are more resilient than hardened structures and can effectively absorb waves energy and protect the shoreline. We aimed to build an oyster reef for our living shoreline project because an oyster reef can stabilize the shoreline, reduce erosion, improve water quality, and provide habitat for other critters. 

Photo from Sandbar Oyster Co: NC Aquarium – Pine Knoll Shores had a Sandbar living shoreline created in 2019, which has turned into a healthy reef. We hope to see similar success with ours!

There are a variety of methods for creating restored oyster reefs. In 2021, the Conservancy built three other restored oyster reefs in BHI Creek. These reefs were created from bagged recycled oyster shells that were placed along eroded shorelines in the creek to encourage oyster recruitment. However, the Marina Park living shoreline does not involve bagged oysters.  Sandbar Oyster Co. created a patented biodegrade material from cement and plant-based cloth. This material is ideal for oyster reef building and is used to make their Oyster Catcher^TM  Table-Pillow sill system. Structures called “tables” and “pillows” are made from this biodegradable material and are installed on the desired shoreline. Over time, the “tables” provide a hard surface that encourages baby oysters to settle and an oyster reef to grow, and the “pillows” protect the tables, allow sediment to accumulate, and strengthen the reef and shoreline. Another bonus of this living shoreline method is that it avoids adding plastics to the water, as many bagged oyster reefs use not biodegradable polypropylene mesh bags. 

Thank you so much to all the staff and volunteers who helped make this happen!

We are so excited to see oyster growth over time on our new living shoreline! We hopefully can expect oyster spat settlement as early as this spring. Go check it out at Marina Park! Contact conservation@bhic.org with any questions.