Niba: We can help protect vulnerable oysters using trash.

Oysters aren't just good for a happy-hour snack. They're also a really important part of ocean ecosystems and could play a huge role in fixing the climate crisis: they capture carbon in their shells, and naturally filter the water where they live, and their reefs protect coastlines against erosion.

But right now, oysters are suffering. As climate change makes the ocean more acidic, it's getting harder for oysters to grow shells, so their populations are collapsing. And that's why some people are trying to save them by throwing trash in the water. Okay, not like any trash; they're taking empty oyster shells from restaurants and planting them in bays and rivers as surrogate homes for oyster larvae.

Organizations like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and New York's Billion Oyster Project are using those discarded shells to help the oysters recover. And by supporting these projects or your local, sustainable oyster farmers, you can help the oysters bounce back, too.

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