Each year through a partnership with the Chesapeake Beach Oyster Cultivation Society (CBOCS), NRL hosts the two-part project to grow and release mature oyster spat in the Bay.

NRL receives oyster spat to sink on its docks each fall, spat are oyster larvae that are attached to a surface, in this case an oyster shell surface. The following summer the oyster cages are hoisted out of the water, spat are counted, and the oysters are motored out to be spread on a reef.

This year is the first year that volunteers for the oyster restoration project were outside of the environmental department, expanding to employees across NRL divisions. Alisha Sutton, natural resource manager at NRL leads the program each year.