The Living Breakwaters Project

Situated at the mouth of the New York Bight, the south shore of Staten Island is vulnerable to wave action and erosion, particularly on its south shore in Tottenville. Dredging and the diminishment of natural and farmed oyster reefs have left it increasingly exposed over time. One of the hardest hit areas during Hurricane Sandy, Tottenville experienced severe erosion from the storm, and, given the predicted impacts of sea level rise, it will continue to lose acreage in the future if no action is taken to protect the area.

The Living Breakwaters Project seeks to address these challenges by employing a necklace of concrete barriers several hundred yards offshore to buffer neighborhoods from wave damage and erosion while providing a more biodiverse habitat for juvenile fish, oysters, and other organisms. These “Living Breakwaters” will be seeded with oysters, which create irregularly shaped reefs that absorb and dissipate wave energy. This infrastructure is paired with social resiliency frameworks in adjacent neighborhoods on-shore to help increase awareness of risk, empower citizens, and engage local schools in waterfront education. The proposal was awarded by New York State and is currently being implemented by the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery with $60 million of funding allocated for this project, currently in the schematic design process.