Acme Oyster House (Getty Images)
Acme Oyster House (Getty Images)
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BURAS, La. (AP) — Restaurant workers and oil company employees have been hard at work collecting discarded oyster shells in preparation for them to be returned to the ocean to create spawning areas for oysters.

The Advocate reports volunteers from Shell Oil and New Orleans restaurant group Dickie Brennan & Co. earlier this month shoveled 19 tons of oyster shells into bags in Plaquemines Parish. The bags will be used to build a half mile of barrier reef next year along a shoreline in the Biloxi Marsh in St. Bernard Parish.

Participating restaurants in New Orleans have discarded about 1,300 tons of oyster shells since 2014 for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

Coalition Executive Director Kimberly D. Reyher says it could take about 30 days of such work to get the entire amount ready for next year.

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