OUTLET: WVEC-TV
PORTSMOUTH — Eighth graders from Waters Middle School arrived at Ellen and Ray Comstock’s home Saturday armed with a bag full of about 1,000 oyster spat (young oysters). The students were there to teach the Comstocks about raising oysters.
The spat were measured and documented before the students, along with their teacher, put their water float (a device used to hold the oysters) in the water near the Comstocks’ home. The Comstocks’ house was one of three residences where the students went Saturday.
“They’re small, but they do a big job for the ocean and the water,” student James Hall noted about the oysters. “They help filter the water.”
Wheelabrator, the company that takes municipal waste and turns it into steam power for the Navy, set up the program.
“One of the things that we have been doing is giving back to the communities that we are involved in,” explained Wheelabrator spokeswoman Jeanette McKinney. “We thought educating the children because they are the future is a great way to do it, so we have been doing it for 20 years.”
