Our Story
Billion Oyster Project was founded in 2014 by Murray Fisher and Pete Malinowski, who envisioned a healthy, biodiverse New York Harbor — and who shared the belief that restoration without education is temporary.
Murray and Pete met at The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, where Murray served as Director and Pete taught Aquaculture. The two found that when students are given real responsibility, like helping to restore a degraded New York Harbor, they rise to the occasion with great enthusiasm. Billion Oyster Project has expanded on that idea — offering public school students, volunteers, community scientists and restaurants the opportunity to learn about New York City’s rich oyster history and lead the movement to restore it.
“Pete and I both had the opportunity to fall in love with the environment as kids, and we wanted to reproduce that feeling for as many kids in the city as possible.”
What started as a project of the Harbor School has grown into a city-wide initiative across the five boroughs. We are so grateful to collaborate with thousands of individuals of varied ages and backgrounds, and hundreds of sustainability-minded organizations.
15,000 Volunteers
100 NYC Schools
8,000+ Students
60 Restaurants
Restoring oysters in one of the busiest ports in the United States is particularly challenging, but we have an amazing team and a dedicated community behind us. So far, we have:
18 active restoration sites across NYC
Oysters are reproducing in New York Harbor!
2 million+ pounds of recycled shell collected
We are working to restore one billion oysters to New York Harbor by 2035
and currently setting 50 million oysters into our local waterways per season!
“Billion Oyster Project has grown from the belief that if we are to continue living, working, teaching, and learning on this planet, we must fundamentally change how humans interact with nature.”