OysterFest/SPAT recycles all its beverage cups, plus oyster and clam shells. Approximately 126,000 oysters and 32,000 clams were shucked during the 2011 OysterFest, 77% of which
were recycled.

In partnership with NOAA and the Town of Wellfleet, SPAT recycledover 5 TONS OF SHELLS saving over 324,000 live spat (baby oysters.) This is the first year that the oyster shells were returned to the harbor without overwintering saving many hundreds of thousands of spat. The Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries granted special permission to do this since all the oysters consumed at the festival come from Wellfleet, so there is no to risk of transferring oyster diseases from outside Wellfleet! Moreover, the area where the shell was placed is not near any commercial or grant areas and will remain under special observation to monitor growth and survival.

The shell is now creating habitat at a new town propagation area near the Wellfleet pier. As these oysters mature they will filter over 16 million gallons of water in the Harbor each day and remove 400 pounds of nitrogen per year.

That is going to do a lot for creating a healthy wild oyster fishery habitat Wellfleet Harbor!