In the last few centuries, New York City’s shores have had a decent amount of oysters living in that area and they had numerous beds for them to rest on, but now the New York Harbor is contaminated with old toilets from public schools.

Around the 1600s, oysters from all over the world came and lived in the harbor. However, polluted waters have put an end to the homes for the oysters in the 1920s, according to the Washington Post.

The Clean Water Act in 1972 have made the water cleaner and more mollusks have come tried to make a home here in the city.  New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had worked with the New York Department of Environmental Protection in order to repair the dilemma.  Their new project consists mainly of one thing to help the oysters: old toilets.

The project is that it will use porcelain from 5,000 old toilets from the city’s public school bathrooms and with the $1 million grant they can create new oyster beds for the sea creatures.  Basically, they combine the porcelain from the toilets with some old oyster and clam shells to make homes for the mollusks, according to the Washington Post.

The bivalves have been beneficial to New Yorkers whenever there is a storm heading in their direction.  During a storm, waves tend to rise and get stronger during the process.  The oysters absorb the shock of the waves and prevent any serious damage to the land.

This project is planning to expand their work in order to find more homes for the oysters.  So far, they have helped approximately 19 million bivalves and more of them will be put into effect.

Aside from them being decent as a hot meal, oysters have other reasons for having support from people and they anticipate the incoming homes for them.

“Featured Image via Flicker/James St. John