BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Oyster restoration, seagrass planting and removing old watercraft were among the projects selected for funding by the Brevard County Commission during its last regular meeting of August.

Ten projects were submitted to and approved for funding through the Tourism Development Council’s (TDC) Tourism + Lagoon Grant Program. 

The BCC approved funding for 10 projects as part of the program’s fiscal year 2023 budget during the commission’s Aug. 30 meeting. A total of $939,343 was approved out of the $1,076,377 requested. Four of the 14 proposed projects did not receive funding.

The approved projects include the following (in order of amount of funds received from high to low along with the proposing organizations):

Brevard County Natural Resources Department

• Project — Restoring Seagrass for improved Natural Resilience 
• Funding — $250,000
• Matching — $250,000 (100%)

Brevard County Natural Resources Department

• Project — Titusville Causeway Multi-trophic Shoreline Stabilization and Resiliency Action Project, Phase 2c
• Funding — $250,000
• Matching — $250,000 (100%)

Brevard Zoo

• Project — Brevard County Oyster Restoration
• Funding — $113,840
• Matching — $181,380 (159%)

City of Satellite Beach

• Project — Satellite Beach Adopt-A-Canal
• Funding — $49,999
• Matching — $30,947 (62%)

Marine Resources Council

• Project — Innovative Solutions for Protecting our Public Spaces
• Funding — $49,999
• Matching — $18,000 (36%)

City of Satellite Beach

• Project – Samsons Island Submerged Lands Restoration, Phase 3
• Funding — $49,839
• Matching — $80,087 (160%)

Brevard County National Resources Department

• Project — Derelict Vessel Removal
• Funding — $49,300
• Matching — $0 (0%)

University of Florida Whitney Laboratory

• Project — Restoration of native clam communities in Indian River Lagoon for improved water quality and economic resiliency
• Funding — $49,100
• Matching — $22,000 (45%)

Keep Brevard Beautiful

• Project — KBB Flex Team N. Banana River Drive Litter Removal
• Funding — $40,000
• Matching — $0 (0%)

Sea Redwine

• Project — New Swell Mangrove Restoration and Outreach Project
• Funding — $37,266
• Matching — $17,500 (37%)

The project putting up the most of its own money for its project is the work being done on Samsons Island near the city of Satellite Beach. It is investing nearly $81,000 in matching funds for phase three of its work using oysters to help provide improved water quality to the Indian River Lagoon (IRL).

Nick Sanzone, the environmental programs coordinator for the city, said the program was borne from Satellite Beach’s 2018 sustainability action plan, created in partnership with Florida Tech. He said one of the goals was to “create green achievement target goals that we would reach to become more sustainable.”

With this latest round of funding secured, the project will now move into phase three of its work. 

Resiliency through oysters

Oysters are an incredibly important part of the ecosystem of the IRL. According to the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, adult oysters can filter as much as 50 gallons of water per day. 

This particular project from Satellite Beach has three phases. The first phase was designed to unite 10 partners for the work, which included Florida Oceanographic Society, Florida Tech and the Marine Resources Council. It also involved gathering thousands of oyster shells and placing them in a semicircle off the coast of Samsons Island Nature Preserve.

The location was chosen in part because it was historically an area that supported plentiful seagrass and oyster populations. 

“We worked with our partners at Marine Discovery Center and Florida Oceanographic Society to provide the oyster shells,” Sanzone said. “So, over 30 tons of oyster shells in phase one and about another 20 tons of oyster shells in phase two to create oyster breakwaters, which act as a break wall around the site to reduce wave energy as well as create possible habitats for oysters.”

The wall stands about 3.5 feet tall and is comprised of about 5,500 bags of oyster shells. They are also experimenting with which type of containers best support attracting oysters. There are 100 gabions, a type of metal cage; 500 oyster pillows, which are a metal mesh; and 40 oyster prisms, which are made from a concrete jute fabric.

“We’re trying to get away from plastic mesh, so we’re testing these other materials,” Sanzone said. 

Phase two focused on monitoring the site. Sanzone said it offered some good preliminary data, but they want to both continue and expand the process, which is why they wrote the grant application for phase three.

This additional funding allows the team to not only support regular monitoring of the site and testing samples, but also to bring members of the community out to the sites through eco tours, which will be offered twice each month starting in October 2022.

“I’m going to quote somebody who did the original restoration of Samsons Island in 1994. When they restored it, he said it’s the direct, felt experience of restoration projects like this that have a lasting effect on future generations,” Sanzon said. “And that’s what we want to foster and instill, is this kind of sustainable, interconnected mindset among the youth.” 

Sanzone said his love for the environment came from middle school field trips to the IRL that always stuck with him. After leaving his hometown of Satellite Beach, Sanzone took that energy and passion from college at the University of Florida to the Nature Conservancy and eventually back to Satellite Beach.

“Eventually, you’re just living the dream. You’re just doing your dream job and engaging with the community and helping further science and understanding of how people can coexist with the environment,” Sanzone said. 

He said the goal from this work, in part, is to be able to take all the data they gather about the impact of this type of project, both on oysters and the seagrass growing within the barrier, and put that into white papers that can be used by governments and communities in Florida and across the country.

“The end goal for me is awareness that the lagoon isn’t dying. There’s a lot of this talk, but the lagoon is not dying,” Sanzone said. “It’s sick, sure, but that just means that you need to give more time and effort to healing, more understanding.”

Sanzone noted that Satellite Beach and other communities in Brevard County are dealing with the way the canals were established back in the mid-1950s, when planners designed the irrigation systems to allow stormwater to “run off the land as fast as possible, because they wanted to stay dry.” 

“They didn’t think about the future. We’re living in their future and learning from their mistakes,” Sanzone said. “And it’s not that they were bad people. They just didn’t think about the things that we now have to think about on a daily basis.

“Hopefully, we can think ahead, so that future generations will have the clean lagoon that we grew up with and maybe even cleaner, so that they can go fishing and swimming without concern about algae blooms, devastating fish kills and sea grass loss. That’s my hopeful, optimistic outlook.”

To learn more about the project, click here. The next meeting of the TDC is set for Thursday, Sept. 28.