PQ: “The conventional engineering fail to prevent erosion because they do not have longevity. Why?

Because of the attacks of the waves. In the rainy season, larger waves remove the soil surrounding the
dam, and eventually break the dams. So, to soften the wave, you need to break it, and to break the
wave you can build artificial oyster reefs in the water. It will make the dams safe because the wave can
no longer remove soil to damage the dams. Instead, in our research, we found that you could actually
reclaim 29 centimetres of land by installing oyster reefs!”

--- Dr Shah Nawaz Chowdhury, Marine Scientist

Can we save marine drive and the coast by saving oysters?

Masum Billah

Category: Feature

SF: Do you think geo bags are the last resort to stop the Bay of Bengal from devouring the marine
drive in Cox’s Bazar? Guess what? By saving oysters and building artificial oyster reefs, we can
effectively save the threatened marine drive and our entire coasts from a devouring sea; and
reemploy the people dependent on molluscs for livelihood in environmentally sustainable businesses!

Shakera Begum, a mid-aged woman from coastal Cox’s Bazar, collects seashells, molluscs or bivalve
species from the seashore for a living. A mother of four elderly children, Shakera, said her entire family
is involved in this business.

They collect molluscs like oyster, snail, clam and other seashells to make jewellery like necklaces,
earrings, bangles, and various other ornamental showpieces. They sell the jewellery to local retailers and
wholesalers in Cox’s Bazar.

On a regular day, Shakera could hardly manage time for a long conversation. Besides her family
members, she employs five to seven labourers to assist her. She has a busy schedule. But these are no
regular days.

“We idle away because we do not receive work orders. We have been suffering for more than a year
since the lockdown announced last year. The only means of our livelihood is gone,” Shakera told The
Business Standard.

She is not alone. Thousands like her in the Cox’s Bazar coastal areas are in trouble as their seashell
businesses dried up due to the persistent lockdowns.

At the backdrop of these people suffering, however, the oysters and snails – our ecosystem engineers –
they hunt perhaps have now a breathing space as they too have been struggling to survive due to the
indiscriminate collections.
“The number of snails and oysters on Cox's Bazar sea beach has come down to less than 20 percent of
that found three decades ago,” Dr M Kabir Ahmed, an oceanographer, researcher and former district
fisheries officer at Cox's Bazar told TBS in an earlier in an interview. It means as much as 80 percent of
oysters and snails have been destroyed.

Other marine scientists we spoke to didn’t give us an exact figure, but they also agreed a large number
of our bivalve species are gone, and the people including those who are in seashell-jewellery businesses
and the local Rakhine tribe who make a living on molluscs played a role in the destruction of these
species.

The marine scientists and oceanographers said with proper planning and sincere actions, it is not only
these endangered species that we can save.

By saving oysters and building artificial oyster reefs, we can effectively save the threatened marine drive
and our entire coasts from a devouring sea; and reemploy the people dependent on molluscs for
livelihood in environmentally sustainable businesses.

The big idea: Saving marine drive and the coast with oysters?

If the idea of saving the coasts from big wave through artificial oyster reef sounds new, let us tell you the
story of the Billion Oyster Project (BOP) in New York harbour. Just like the oysters in Cox’s Bazar are
endangered, the New Yorkers wiped out their oyster population in the last 100 years.

The BOP, with a mission to restore the oyster reefs since 2014, have so far restored 47 million live
oysters, restored oysters at 15 reefs across the five boroughs.

Beyond the water-filtering power of oysters, according to the BOP, their reefs provide habitat for
hundreds of species. “Oyster reefs can help protect New York City from storm damage — softening the
blow of large waves, reducing flooding, and preventing erosion along the shorelines.”

We talked to the marine scientists in Bangladesh to learn if such artificial oyster reefs are possible in
Bangladesh and if such a plan has crossed their minds.

And guess what? We met a marine scientist, Dr Shah Nawaz Chowdhury of Chittagong University, who
did his PhD research on this! He spent more than a decade researching oysters and now looking forward
to an opportunity to implement a pilot project of artificial oyster reef in the Cox’s Bazar coast.

Dr Chowdhury believes that if we can build such oyster reefs, they will emerge as a natural speedbump
for the fearsome waves that hit our coast to rattle lands and roads. “Oysters are the ecological engineer.
The main concept is to solve the problems in nature with nature. If we can use nature in engineering – it
becomes ecological engineering, which is my field.”

This marine scientist shared with us his aspiration, thoughts and dreams of building oyster reefs on
Bangladesh’s coast.

“When I was looking for my PhD, I was wondering if we could prevent coastal erosion in Bangladesh
naturally. I found that the Netherland has mastered the art of natural dam and they rule the water in
the best manner. And the original idea of using oyster to save the coast is also of Netherland’s.”
“So, when I got the PhD opportunity there to research about Netherland’s coastal problems, I convinced
my supervisor, a very good soul, that I want to research about the coastal problems including erosions
and others in Bangladesh instead,” said Dr Chowdhury.

Just like the coral reef in Saint Martin, the idea was to build a reef with oysters in Cox’s Bazar.

Following the Netherland’s footstep, Dr Chowdhury did his research experiment and PhD oyster reef
pilot project in Bangladesh’s Kutubdia Island, one of the most endangered areas due to climate change,
with the artificial oyster reef.

Dr Shah Nawaz found that building oyster reefs in our erosion-prone coastal areas could effectively save
our coast from erosion.

The marine scientist said he had a wonderful publication and media coverage both in Bangladesh and
Netherlands; he also convinced the concerned minister in a meeting for a pilot oyster reef project. He
requested for a one-kilometre-long pilot project to begin with, and subsequently 100 kilometres of
oyster reef projects if the pilot is successful.

But Bangladesh’s water development board was not convinced even to launch a trial project.

“It is actually an easy process. If you visit a jetty in Coxs’s Bazar where tidal waves hit, you will find
oysters stuck on hard substances,” Shah Nawaz said. “Oyster spats float in water for nearly a month, but
they need to settle on a strong substance where they stay forever. They settle on one each other’s back,
and thus creates walls. All they need is a hard substance. And I think given the dynamism of the oyster
population in Bangladesh, we have reasons to be optimistic.”

“The conventional engineering fail to prevent erosion because they do not have longevity. Why?
Because of the attacks of the waves. In the rainy season, larger waves remove the soil surrounding the
dam, and eventually break the dams. The wave is the main enemy. So, to soften the wave, you need to
break it, and to break the wave you can build artificial oyster reefs in water. It will make the dams safe,
the wave can no longer remove soil to damage the dams. Instead, in our research, we found that you
could actually reclaim 29 centimetres of land by installing oyster reefs!”

Dr Chowdhury, an assistant professor of marine science, added that “Our authorities perhaps want to
solve everything by hard engineering. But if you don’t have the soil to sustain the dam, what is the use
of it? When you build a dam on the coast, you will need to consider the ecosystem and habitat in
designing the structure. You cannot just put in design from the perspective of hard engineering
everywhere.”

He is not alone of such views. Many other marine scientists we spoke to are of the same opinion that
artificial oyster reef can indeed reduce the wave impacts and save the coast; and they are not expensive.

Molluscs endangered. What is happening?

We asked Tarikul Islam, a scientific officer & head of the chemical oceanographic department at
Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute, for his observation of why the oysters and other bivalve
species are endangered.

He mentioned two primary reasons for the bane – excess collections and indiscriminate development
projects.

“First of all, even if the collectors (the likes of Shakera Begum) are allowed, they should collect molluscs
in a sustainable way. There should be a limit. But the way they collect, we are on the verge of the
destruction of food chains and the ecosystem.”

For the reader discretion, there is an Environment Conservation Act that prohibits the extraction and
sale of snails and oysters, but the district administration of Cox's Bazar has been reported to be
permitting the collectors and the beach businessmen of this illegal trade.

“And take the dam Navy built in Teknaf’s Sabrang area. It used to be the largest natural bed of oyster in
Bangladesh. Now the dam hinders the tidal waves, and consequently, the area becomes dry in winter.
Hence, the oyster bed has been destroyed. No one is doing the protection rather destroying whatever
they have already.”

Dr Asaduzzaman, an assistant professor of Marine Bioresource Science at Chattogram Veterinary and

Animal Sciences University echoed Tarikul as he said, “There is exploitation but no conservation of the
bivalve. Besides, this field doesn’t have the necessary focus of the government.”

Is there a way to save the molluscs?

Dr Asaduzzaman has been working on molluscs and seaweed artificial breeding projects for a long time.
He looks after nearly a dozen molluscs’ cage cultures (pilot projects) in Cox’s Bazar.

“We can increase our effort in artificial breeding of molluscs. If our efforts are successful, this will not
only save the molluscs, it will create a unique opportunity for the local people to do sustainable
businesses with molluscs instead of ruining their natural habitat,” he lit hope for local people dependent
molluscs collections for livelihood.

Secondly, Dr Asaduzzaman recommends a periodic ban on collecting molluscs from November to

January – the breeding season of molluscs – just like the fishing ban period.

And thirdly, echoing Dr Shah Nawaz Chowdhury, he recommends building structures for oyster-spats
where they can settle. When one oyster settles, a colony would emerge that eventually becomes a
strong natural wave breaker.

Back to the beginning

Mohammad Rafik, a client of Shakera Begum, is one such retailer who sells molluscs-made jewellery at
the beach. A father of two school-going children, Rafik was lazing in front of his closed shop on the
beach when we met him.
“My savings dried up. I am surviving the days on debt. Now only if this lockdown is lifted, we have a
hope to restart, otherwise, we are in big trouble,” Rafik told us in early June.

The local Oyster-Snail Jewelleries Shop Owner Association secretary Jakir Hossain later told us that there
are more than 300 shoppers like Rafik on Sugandha beach alone, and nearly 15,000 people’s livelihood
in the Cox’s Bazar coastal area are dependent on molluscs-made jewellery business.

All of them are in trouble thanks to Coronavirus-led lockdowns.

A month since we talked to Rafik, Covid-19 condition is nothing but on the verge of getting worse than
ever. The hope that Rafik was waiting for perhaps turned into a deep depression already.

This lockdown apparently has no end.

But life must go on. Both for humans, oysters and other molluscs. A policy step in the right direction
perhaps can save all these species, and create an ecosystem where human and molluscs build an
intricate web of friendship to save our coast from the damaging impact of climate change.

For Infographics: The benefits of Molluscs

 High nutritional value of bivalve: Unsaturated lipid which is good for the heart. It will serve the
demand of fat in your body but will not create a block in your heart. The main aquaculture of
New Zealand is the bivalve.
 Huge export potentials. Globally sold at $5-$10 per KG
 Culturing mollusc is not expensive. Just build the system, you don’t need to feed them. They eat
plankton from the water.
 They are ecosystem cleaner. They purify what stinks through their unique behaviour.
 Creates food for other animals
 And natural dam!