The hardest-working residents of Red Hook do not have opposable thumbs. Since May, a repurposed deck barge anchored in Erie Basin has carried 250,000 juvenile oysters in stacked mesh cages, each one filtering as much as 30 gallons of harbor water a day for the Red Hook Reef Project.

"An oyster is a water treatment plant that builds itself," said Maren Voss, the marine biologist who founded the project in 2023 with a grant and a donated barge that previously hauled gravel. "We just give them an apartment."

The oysters are not for eating; harbor shellfish remain off-limits and will for decades. The goal is habitat and water clarity, and early numbers are encouraging. Sampling this summer found measurably clearer water within 200 feet of the barge and an uptick in small fish sheltering around the cages, including juvenile black sea bass.

The sampling itself is done largely by seventh graders from a Red Hook middle school, who visit weekly by rowboat to measure, count, and, per tradition, name one oyster each. "I named mine Lorraine," said Osvaldo Pinto, 12, recording shell widths on a clipboard. "She's grown four millimeters. That's elite."

Voss hopes to add a second barge off Bush Terminal next spring, pending permits. Lorraine, presumably, will be promoted.