Tampa Bay Watch is working to restore the bay and hopes to create a healthy ecosystem by teaching others to be mindful of the water and what lives beneath the surface. Nestled inside the docks at the St. Pete Pier, visitors will find a special vessel located at Gate 23.
It’s the Tampa Bay Watch catamaran Discovery and visitors will find that it’s aptly named when they embark on a tour of the waterway the group watches over. “We’ve been doing conservation (and) restoration projects in Tampa Bay for about 30 years.” shared Leah Biery, director of Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center.
“Our Ecotours include a visit to a bird island, you get to learn general information about the bay, the animals that live in it, you get to see dolphins and manatees.”
Really, it’s a way to expose the public to the things that Tampa Bay Watch does every day. “We do a lot of different things,” stated Biery. “One of our main projects is to restore the bay is our oyster reef ball program.” That program sounds simple enough, but the work is heavy and time-consuming.
Biery added, “We build oyster reef balls which are structures that oysters can grow on. We distribute them throughout the bay. The oysters themselves filter the water, they’re filter feeders.”