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Researcher on a boat holds up a small jar of harbor water, city skyline blurred behind

we're looking toward the future

Photo: One million oysters in a jar.

For decades, New York Harbor was written off as too polluted and too far gone to fix.

We never accepted that. We were built on the idea that restoration would require new ways of working and thinking in a city defined by its advancements in innovation and technology. 

Aerial view of Lower Manhattan and New York Harbor on an overcast day
Worker in a life vest examines a small sample container aboard a restoration barge

Modern-Day Innovators of New York Harbor

We are rebuilding the foundation of the estuarine ecosystem and advocating for access to the New York Harbor. That means designing reefs that can function in a thriving urban estuary and generating the data needed to guide it forward.

Innovation as Infrastructure

Innovation allows us to grow from restoring millions of oysters to hundreds of millions of oysters per year. It’s the monitoring methods and technologies that show us what’s working and what’s not. We are designing a model other cities can follow.

Crew hoists two concrete reef structures above a barge during deployment preparations

innovating is the key to scale

How we're getting to one billion oysters by 2030.

Restoring one billion oysters by 2030 requires understanding how New York Harbor functions as a connected ecosystem and building the science, infrastructure, and long-term planning needed to restore it at scale. When we started, many questioned whether oyster restoration was even possible. Today, we know oysters can survive and reproduce throughout the Harbor.

Our focus has shifted from individual restoration sites to a harbor-wide strategy designed around reef connectivity, adaptive management, and long-term ecosystem recovery. Working alongside leading scientific and restoration partners, we are developing the data and tools needed to guide where reefs are built, how they interact, and what it will take to create a self-sustaining Harbor for future generations.

Sincerely,
Handwritten signature
Carolyn Khoury
Director of Restoration

What we're working on

Five projects building the science and tools for Harbor-wide restoration.
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Concrete reef structure covered in oysters, lifted onto a boat deck
01

Harbor Modeling & Reef Connectivity

With Cornell and Norwich Universities, we're modeling how currents carry oyster larvae and where they settle.

  • Map where larvae travel and settle
  • Find the reef sites that keep oyster populations connected
  • Publish models that help estuaries beyond New York
Oysters on a red tray beside a measuring ruler
02

Habitat Evaluation & Site Selection

With Natrx, we're comparing potential reef sites on depth, salinity, oxygen, waves, and nearby infrastructure.

  • Prioritize sites where reefs are most likely to thrive
  • Weigh buildability, shoreline protection, and permits
  • Guide future fieldwork and reef design
Historic photo of oyster barges and shell piles along a New York waterfront
03

Reconstructing Oyster History

Core samples near Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty show what the Harbor's reefs looked like before industry reshaped it.

  • Recover pieces of the historic seafloor
  • Learn what once supported huge oyster populations
  • Work that has rarely been attempted in the Harbor
A small pipefish resting in an open hand
04

Monitoring & Biodiversity

New tools show us, in real time, how marine life responds as reefs return.

  • Underwater cameras with Anemo Robotics track fish on restored reefs
  • AI-assisted review makes hours of video faster to analyze
  • eDNA sampling measures which species are present
Aerial concept rendering of a Billion Oyster Project reef barge loading concrete reef structures at a pier
05

Remote Setting Barge

Arriving in 2027, our barge will set oyster larvae onto shell right on the water, then install them across the Harbor.

  • Far more capacity, with strong spat survival
  • Key to growing from about 15 million to 100+ million oysters a year
Concept design by Billion Oyster Project / Persak & Wurmfeld
upcoming
expeditions
upcoming
Black-and-white line drawing of a seahorse

Upcoming Expeditions

In 2026, we will launch a series of expeditions exploring the past, present, and future of New York Harbor.
Oyster larvae seen through a microscope with a measuring scale
Larval transport modeling and reef connectivity
Expeditions to show how oyster larval behavior and estuarine hydrodynamics interact to connect potential restoration sites to one another.
Anemo Robotics
Expeditions to deploy underwater cameras and monitoring systems to document species and use patterns associated with restored reef sites.
Learn more
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Greater yellowlegs standing in shallow water
American Bird Conservancy and New York Bird Alliance
Expeditions to monitor bird data so we can understand activity above the water. Currently, ABC has monitored over 130 bird species using the Harbor.
Learn more
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eDNA SAMPLING
Expeditions to explore how we measure biodiversity across the Harbor. We have documented over 50 species on our restoration sites.
Vycarb
Expeditions to evaluate how oyster restoration may contribute to carbon removal in emerging markets, focused on climate mitigation in New York Harbor.
Learn more
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Underwater camera in a clear waterproof housing on a dock
Clearwater Box
Capturing underwater footage and facilitate field observations and data collection, providing more opportunities for non-destructive sampling post-restoration.
Phytoplankton Study
Alongside National Geographic Explorer, Gabrielle Corradino, we'll analyze Hudson River plankton communities to reveal the nutritional value of oyster food sources, giving us its first-ever window into oyster diet at restoration sites.
Learn more
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