Thirty thousand donated farm-grown oysters apparently drew the short straw last week for a potential suicide mission—transplantation into the St. Lucie River downstream from the Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart, waters recently cited as unfit for human contact because of high fecal bacteria counts. To prepare them for their brutal new environment, the oysters went through a tough low-salinity acclimation obstacle course before being released last week.

“The ones out there have been through hell and back,” Research Aquaculture’s Tom McCrudden said of his troops. “It’s survival of the fittest. Hopefully, the babies will be just as strong.”

It is hoped the pilot program will help overcome the lack of natural oyster reproduction, which has been zero so far this year due to low salinity levels as the estuary remains the dumping ground for freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee.

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