What the Gowanus Canal Needs? OYSTERS!

Sexy!

Architect Kate Orff gave a speech at the TED Conference last December, and suggested that Oysters may in fact be the key to rescuing the gigantic, smelly, sewer-like Gowanus Canal.

"Bundled into beds and sunk into city rivers, oysters slurp up pollution and make legendarily dirty waters clean -- thus driving even more innovation in 'oyster-tecture.'"

I mean, I know nothing about nothing, but maybe she's right? Apparently one little ole oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day! They took a look back at the history of NY and discovered that at one point "oyster reefs also covered about a quarter of our harbor and were capable of filtering the water in the harbor in a matter of days."

DAYM!

So maybe if we can grow something like 10 bazillion oysters, and then throw em all into the canal, along with some kombucha juice from the Coop, feathers from the chickens who are going to live up on Whole Foods' new rooftop, and the saliva of 10 Park Slope bebes, that mofo *might* actually have a shot at turning into something aside from a watery toxic dump? 

(via TED)

p.s. speaking of the shithole that is the Gowanus Canal, some local business owner just got fined almost $500k for dumping a metric ton of crap and pollution into the GC, including rusty pipes, garbage, concrete, wood and oh some oil and cleaning fluids for good measure. Lovely.