GROW OYSTER REEFS
Grow Oyster Reefs LLC is a woman-owned Virginia enterprise that possesses patented and scalable concrete oyster substrate products poised to dramatically improve oyster reef restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and beyond.
Evelyn Tickle is the Founder, Inventor, and CEO of Grow Oyster Reefs, based in Charlottesville, VA. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, MIT Solver, and RISE Innovation Fellow.
Locally, nationally, and internationally, the oyster, its shell, and its habitat, the oyster reef, are critically endangered and in some areas functionally extinct. This unique habitat works to stabilize the sand floors and shorelines of our estuaries and bays keeping waters from rising to a level that threatens
coastal communities, and their built and natural environments. Using biomimicry design techniques, Evelyn Tickle of Grow Oyster Reefs,LLC invented a specialized and clean concrete formula which matches that of the oyster shell to provide early stage nutrition to the growing oyster. Her invention is poised to dramatically improve oyster reef restoration efforts globally. This work has been featured recently on NBC’s Today Show and in Smithsonian Magazine. Grow Oyster Reefs is supported by MIT Solve and Rise Resilience Innovation Grant. This exhibition is an introduction to the breadth and ingenuity of Tickle’s work.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
THE ISSUE
“From its mouth for 20 miles up, The James River is nothing less than an enormous oyster bed”, wrote a New York Times reporter who sailed with an oyster schooner in 1880. “Today, oyster populations are less than 5 percent of their historical populations”1. Locally and globally, the oyster, its shell, and the oyster reef, are critically endangered, if not functionally extinct.
The Chesapeake Bay, or Great Shellfish Bay, as it was once called by American Indians, , is an ecosystem that evolved from the abundant oyster and the reefs it creates. Oyster reefs channel currents, protect marshes from erosion, and stabilize the sand floors and shorelines of our estuaries and bays. Oysters play many imperative roles in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. They are its kidneys: oysters filter toxins and algae, keeping the water clean and habitable for other species. Oyster reefs are a nursery and habitat for over 300 species of flora and fauna, including fish, crabs, shrimp, and eels. Their functional role in the ecosystem is matched by their importance in the coastal culture and economy.
The threatened oyster has critical implications at both a local and global scale. Addressing the effects of climate change and water pollution on oyster health through the protection and restoration of existing reefs, the practice of sustainable oyster farming, and the construction of new artificial reefs is urgent. Without steps to save wild oysters, the entire Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, the culture it created, and the economy it supports are at risk.
THE APPROACH
Since 2008, Evelyn Tickle has worked with oysters and other bi-valves on the bio-chemical, bio-mechanical, and architectonic structure of reefs on the architecture of a substrate that can initiate and enhance oyster growth incrementally. She is working from two fundamental principles: 1. That these structures use a concrete formula based on the chemical analysis of oyster shells and secretions and, 2. That the behavioral and structural analysis of oyster colonies should guide the architectural design.
ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Evelyn Tickle has had her hands in concrete and form makings since 1994. Evelyn was the co-founder of Prettyhard Fine Concrete (2001-2008) and founder of Pretty Fine Concrete (2008-present). She is an entrepreneur experienced in complex concrete design, project development and production, and intellectual property procedures. Evelyn used this expertise, along with her architectural and business experience, to grow a new company, Grow Oyster ReefsLLC, that specializes in making concrete products and infrastructure to promote and enhance marine ecology, such as oysters and their reefs and Living Breakwaters. She designed and invented her first series of products CaC03 Concrete Mix, Reef Tile (CORRT), Reef Disk (CORRD), and has product in the water with The Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife, and the University of Maryland in Baltimore Harbor. Tickle also has a permanent exhibit in the Underwater Museum of Art by the Cultural Arts Alliance on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico off of Grayton Beach, Florida.
1 (Bonini, Christina. “The Importance of Oysters.” James River Association, James River Association, 30 Aug. 2015, thejamesriver.org/the-importance-of-oysters/.)
GROW Oyster Reefs | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
Underwater Museum of Art - Concrete Rope Reef Sheres and Tangles