July 27, 2026 — On a beautiful June day, Caroline Larsson is navigating down the Little River, in Mashpee, toward Hamblin Pond. She’s a Senior Shellfish Technician for the Town of Mashpee, and she’s piloting ten-thousand live oysters to a man-made reef.
“Right now we’re dumping some of our oysters from last season onto the culch that we placed in November, hoping that they’ll start to reef, start to spawn, and we can get a natural set here, which would be really great,” she explained.
Onboard to spread the oysters are Mashpee Shellfish Constable Chris Avis, Natural Resources Officer Tyler Grady, and Dan Goulart, coastal project manager for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, who says the state’s coastal communities are vulnerable.
“Millions of people are in jeopardy of either having a loss of infrastructure or a loss of personal property,” Goulart said. “So investing in nature-based approaches to coastal resilience and biodiversity is really a big bet for the Massachusetts [TNC] chapter right now.”
Instead of building gray infrastructure like seawalls, Goulart said restoring natural habitats like oyster reefs – as well as salt marshes and seagrass beds – can provide similar protection, while also improving water quality and promoting fish habitat.