Events & News

Half Shells for Habitat Events & News

Check back here for the latest updates about H4H.

Long Island Oyster Week: Annual every October

Each October, restaurants across Long Island are urged to participate in Long Island Oyster Week. During this event, partnering restaurants offer excellent deals on fresh local oysters in hopes of increasing shell collection drastically for the duration of the week. This year Long Island Oyster week runs from October 13th through the 20th in 2024, be sure to visit the official site to check which restaurants near you are offering delicious deals!

Dedicated Half Shells for Habitat volunteer and Seatuck board member, Charlie Weiss posing with the 700 lbs of Shells collected at the Blue Island Oyster Fest.
Dedicated Half Shells for Habitat volunteer and Seatuck board member, Charlie Weiss posing with the 700 lbs of Shells collected at the Blue Island Oyster Fest.

Sep 21st 2024: Blue Island Oyster Fest

Half Shells for Habitat is honored to have been invited to the Blue Island Oyster Festival on September 21st 2024 to collect waste shells and table to attendees. Blue Island Oyster Festival is a limited admittance ticketed event celebrating the Long Island Oyster. We look forward to working with the Blue Island farm to ensure that all waste oyster shells produced at this event are recycled and returned to the environment in a meaningful way.

After attending, we are happy to report that the Half Shells truck bed was full of collected shells by the end of the day! Over 700 pounds! Thank you to all who attended and ate plenty of oysters!

Sep 7th 2024: Islip Seafest

We are happy to announce we are once again attending Islip’s Seafest this September! We at Half Shells for Habitat are excited to spread information about oyster restoration right here on Long Island, and to collect waste shells from this event! Be sure to head down to Islip Seafest to talk to us and eat some oysters!

August 24th and 25th 2024: Long Island Maritime Museum (LIMM) festival tabling and shell collection.

The weekend of August 24th and 25th 2024, the Long Island Maritime Museum in Sayville hosted its annual summer festival. Half Shells for Habitat representatives from Seatuck attended both days, tabling for the public and collecting shells from the present shuckers. Half Shells for Habitat has attended this festival each year for multiple years and it’s an excellent time each time. This year, we collected nearly 500 lbs of shells and met multiple people who would go on to join Half Shells for Habitat as volunteers! Festival appearances are tons of fun and a fantastic way to interact with those interested in oyster restoration on Long Island. Be sure to catch us at the Long Island Maritime Museum next summer!!
Dedicated Half Shells for Habitat volunteer Steve Kanowitz, (left) and Half Shells for Habitat program coordinator Connor Dempsey, (right) at the LIMM summer festival.
Combined Half Shells for Habitat and Friends of Bellport Bay Volunteers and Staff bag cured shells at the Manorville composting facility, Brookhaven Town

August 21, 2024: Friends of Bellport Bay Bagging event

Seatuck Volunteers and Staff gathered with Friends of Bellport Bay volunteers and staff to donate cured shells from Half Shells for Habitat’s storage facility to Friends of Bellport Bay. Together the group placed cured shells into biodegradable mesh bags to serve as reef building blocks. In total, 1620 lbs of cured shell was donated to Friends of Bellport Bay!

New H4H Exhibit

A new outdoor exhibit featuring Half Shells for Habitat opened in Bay Shore in August 2023. The exhibit (on the west side of the Eleven Maple building next to The Pizzeria) includes eight large panels that beautifully showcase the goals and workings of the H4H program. It also highlights the H4H partners working within the Town of Islip.

The outdoor gallery is ideally located on the route between Main Street in Bay Shore and the main terminal of H4H partner, Fire Island Ferries, giving many beachgoers the opportunity to learn about the program as they journey to Fire Island.

The exhibit, which was designed by Seatuck volunteer Lisa D’Elia and sponsored by Greenview Properties, will be on display through September.

Enjoy a virtual tour of the exhibit below!

• Panels from the H4H exhibit at Eleven Maple:

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• Exhibit Opening Reception

On August 10, 2023, Seatuck held a reception at Eleven Maple in Bay Shore to celebrate the opening of the Half Shells for Habitat exhibit. The reception was attended by many H4H partner organizations, volunteers and supporters, including Suffolk County Legislator Steve Flotteron. The local newpaper, “South Bay’s Neighbor” (Long Island Media Group) featured a photo from the reception on the cover of the August 23 edition (see below).

Shellapaloosa 2021!

Half Shells for Habitat was proud to present the first-ever “Shellapaloosa” in 2021. The weekend-long oyster celebration kicked off on August 5th with a free Zoom webinar titled, “Restaurants to Restoration: The Story of a Recycled Oyster Shell”. Panelists included experts from the field.

Not only did participants have the opportunity to learn the who, what, where, and why we recycle oyster shells on Long Island, webinar attendees also received a 15% off “oyster voucher” redeemable at any one of the Shellapaloosa participating restaurants on an order of oysters!

Watch the Zoom webinar below:

 

H4H Schedule - Where to Find Us!

Long Island Maritime Museum Seafood Festival

 August 19 & 20, 2023 – 11 am to 6 pm

The H4H team will be on site to collect shells and greet attendees!

Middle Country Library

 August 8,  2023 – 6 pm

 

Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center

December 4, 2021 – 11 am