SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — The Philippe Park Living Shoreline project is entering its third phase next month.

Pinellas County Emergency Management designed the project to protect the park from increased storm surges and erosion, while also rebuilding the natural habitat. 

Crews wrapped up the second phase of the project recently, and in the coming weeks they will target the last section of the half-mile long shoreline.

“What we’re doing will help protect the seawall,” said Dr. Stacey Day with Pinellas County Environmental Management.

Day says there is an experimental facet of the programs as well — the team is using different treatments to see which ones are the most effective.

“We’re going to see how it goes as far as reducing the wave energy, drawing organisms, how does it hold up over time, what was the cost to the benefit?” she said.

In 2021, the team began installing oyster bags — large mesh bags filled with oyster shells.

“We tried using a different shell bag material. It was biodegradable and it fell apart," Day said. "So, we learned that that wasn’t the right material."

Day said this year they’re using plastic mesh bags that weigh about 15 pounds and are very easy to install. She said they’re a low-cost option that is ideal for smaller shorelines.

The bags are stacked into the shape of pyramids, then placed about 5 feet apart. The water is then forced to move around and over them, which reduces wave energy. And because of their makeup, they attract oysters.

“They lay out in the water and they allow the oysters to grow on them. They’re a substrate which allows them to attach to it,” said Pinellas County environmental specialist Alex Manos.

Marine-safe concrete blocks are also being used. Manos said their roughness and PH attracts oysters, and because of their weight, they’re perfect storm barriers.

“When we get storms coming in, or even just waves coming up, the energy of the waves hits the seawall and can erode it over time," he said. "So it can create cracks in the wall throughout the whole sea wall, and these structures prevent that by breaking up that energy so it’s less of an impact on the wall."

Both Manos and Day said it's more important now than ever before to finding effective methods like these to strengthen the ecosystem and give oysters a chance to thrive.

“There used to be so many oysters up here, but they got harvested for food or used in construction projects — kind of a road base sometimes — and so that they’re gone," Day said. "So, we’re trying to rebuild some of that community again. It should help the health of the bay. They’ll filter out some of the pollution in the water and again you get a lot of wildlife when you provide habitat, so it’s a whole little ecosystem that has been removed over time and now we’re trying to rebuild it."

The next phase of the project is scheduled to begin on May 3 at Philippe Park. Volunteers are needed and encouraged to help with the work. Anyone looking for more information on the project or a way to volunteer, can visit the Pinellas County Living Shorelines project website.