The eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy Mini-Grants Program is a collaboration between NOAA and the North American Association for Environmental Education to teach how everyone can support sustainable domestic seafood. Nine innovative projects — including the North Carolina Oyster Trail — have combined stewardship and delicious seafood to teach a variety of audiences about the vital role of aquaculture in U.S. seafood production.

Under the program, the North Carolina Oyster Trail expanded its educational reach this past year with updated resources, grower storytelling, and teacher workshops that showcased sustainable shellfish farming. North Carolina Sea Grant led the effort, in partnership with the North Carolina Coastal Federation and the North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association. 

The initiative highlights local growers, promotes seafood understanding, and seeks to inspire the next generation, supporting the cultural and environmental sustainability of North Carolina’s shellfish industry.

“Shellfish growers often don’t have time to do public education, so the North Carolina Oyster Trail helps share their story,” says Jane Harrison, North Carolina Sea Grant’s coastal economics specialist. “On the trail, visitors can tour oyster farms, taste oysters, and learn about how they’re grown and the communities they support.” 

Watch Jane Harrison at the eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy Mini-Grants Symposium discuss the NC Oyster Trail below.

The project included a traveling oyster exhibit, featuring professional photography and storytelling from growers, hatcheries, and wild harvesters. The exhibit has been showcased at 15 events statewide, reaching an estimated 3,000 viewers.

Partners also offered two educator workshops at Carteret Community College’s aquaculture lab to strengthen teaching on shellfish mariculture.

More on Shellebrating Education on the North Carolina Oyster Trail.

More on the eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy Mini-Grants Program.

adapted from a news release from National Sea Grant