Half Moon Reef Oyster Monitoring

Half Moon Reef was a historically productive oyster reef in Matagorda Bay, Texas, spanning nearly 2 square km. The oyster population on Half Moon Reef was harvested to the point of depletion in the early 1900s and was further hindered by low rates of oyster recruitment.

From late 2013 to early 2014, The Nature Conservancy completed a large-scale restoration of Half Moon Reef, creating 0.23 square km of hard reef structure to encourage oyster recruitment and reef development.

Field sampling conducted by our group took place seasonally from April 2014 to January 2019, with the primary goal of evaluating oyster recruitment, survival, population structure, and disease prevalence.

The larger rationale for this monitoring effort is to provide science-based information that supports natural resource managers and restoration practitioners in making informed decisions for future restoration projects. This scope of work has been developed to assess the current status of oyster populations on Half Moon Reef, serving as a measure of the longer-term sustainability of the reef.