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38 st / July 2015 www.sea-technology.com catch each year per acre of reef, increasing jobs and income for those working in the oyster industry. By providing greater opportunities for recreational shell fshing and angling, they can help increase tourism. Ecologically, oysters act as a natural clean-up crew. They improve water quality by fltering out nitrogen from the wa- ter—an adult oyster can flter up to 50 gallons per day— which in turn helps prevent algal blooms that kill fsh, crabs and sea grass. Oyster reefs also help protect shorelines from erosion by absorbing wave energy, improving wa- ter clarity, and providing habitat for a variety of recre- ationally and commercially important fsh species. Water Quality Monitoring Poor water quality can be considered both a cause and effect of oyster population decline. For restora- tion projects with "ecosystem service-based restora- tion goals," such as improved water quality, guidelines have been established for monitoring specifc water quality parameters—water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen—before and after reef construction. These guidelines are part of the "Oyster Habitat Res- I n the wake of steep oyster population declines throughout the past century, the number of oyster habitat restoration projects in the U.S. has grown signifcantly. In Maryland's Chesapeake Bay alone, where the oyster population is estimated to be less than 1 percent of historic levels, hundreds of acres of shoreline per year are being restored. In Virginia, restoration efforts have led to an increase in state oyster harvest totals from 23,000 bushels in 2001 to more than 400,000 bushels in 2013. And, in Well- feet Harbor on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where ap- proximately 95 percent of oyster reef habitats had been lost since the 1800s, restoration efforts over two seasons have led to a 90 percent increase in the oyster population, with 4.5 million oysters estab- lished in just 2 acres. Much of the growth in reef restoration proj- ects has been fueled by increased federal and lo- cal government funding in coastal habitat restoration. In 2009, NOAA received $167 million to fund the restora- tion of coastal habitats and support job creation, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Growth has also been infuenced by heightened public awareness of the benefts oysters provide to coastal communities from an economic and ecological standpoint. Economically, re- stored reefs can produce thousands of dollars in additional Improving Oyster Habitat Restoration Through Monitoring Measuring Water Temperature, Salinity and Dissolved Oxygen By Evan Lubofsky (Top) The Onset HOBO conductivity logger. (Bottom) Battery- powered data loggers housed in PVC pipes are attached to con- crete blocks to track water quality conditions in Chesapeake Bay.