The Sixth Grade Oyster Bagging Trip

The entire sixth grade went on a field trip to the DNR oyster shell recycling center, where million of oyster shells wait to get bagged.  Why this is an important cause is because the more oyster bags we place on the shore lines, the more erosion is decreased. Erosion is a big problem, every time a large boat for  example drives by a beach, and the wake from that boat goes onto shore and off, it is taking sand off the beach, decreasing the amount of land.  The oyster bagging is done by shoveling the oysters out of the pile to fill a five gallon bucket.  Once the bucket is filled a long piece of mesh, pre-tied at the bottom is placed over a very large pvc pipe and the oysters are guided into the pvc.  Once the oysters are filling almost to the rim the pvs is lifted, leaving the oysters in the mesh bag that had been placed before.  You then ties the top of the bag and carry it to where they are stacked.  Me and two other girls had made 100 bags and the sixth grade bagged 600 bags of oysters, meaning we had bagged 9 tons of oysters.  This field trip was educational and fun because it taught me about how important so many things we would have never expected to be important are and how effective so many things are to the environment.  It was fun because it was something I had never done before and it was very exciting to experience that for the first time.  Something that was shocking however was how much trash there was  in every bucket, there was more trash than there was bags.  THe good thing about that is everyone pitched in by taking every piece of trash they found and recycling or throwing it away.  everyone can help stop erosion, just contact the DNR SCORE oyster recycling center if you are having an oyster roast coming up and dispose of your shells that way.  THis field trip was a once in a lifetime experience and one I will never forget.