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The Oyster's Mighty Comeback Is Creating Cleaner U.S. Waterways

As the wild oyster population resurges, there is an added bonus — our waterways are getting cleaner. Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images

The Salt

The Oyster's Mighty Comeback Is Creating Cleaner U.S. Waterways

Delaware Public Media

The farm-to-table movement has caused the farming of oysters — nature's hardworking little water filters — on the East Coast to double in the past six years.

The Oyster's Mighty Comeback Is Creating Cleaner U.S. Waterways

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They're Back! Chesapeake Oysters Return To Menus After Rebound

A plate of Sweet Jesus oysters grown in Chesapeake Bay by Hollywood Oyster Co. in Hollywood, Md. Katy Adams/Courtesy Clyde's Restaurant Group hide caption

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Katy Adams/Courtesy Clyde's Restaurant Group

The Salt

They're Back! Chesapeake Oysters Return To Menus After Rebound

The Chesapeake Bay once supplied most of the nation's oysters, but overharvesting and disease nearly wiped them out. Now, major public-private efforts to re-establish the oyster as a quality local food product appear to be working. And chefs say the results are sweeter than oysters from other waters.

Sandy's Damage Under The Sea, Through The Eyes Of Oyster Farmers

What they pull up is discouraging. Normally, 30 seconds under water would bring up a cage full of mostly healthy oysters. This time, Jimmy Bloom pulls up a cage that is barely one-third full. And it's haul is a mix of broken, chipped, meatless oysters. Jeff Cohen for NPR hide caption

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Jeff Cohen for NPR

The Salt

Sandy's Damage Under The Sea, Through The Eyes Of Oyster Farmers

The Bloom family has been raising oysters for three generations now on 2,000 underwater acres of oysters in Long Island Sound. On Wednesday, two days after the storm, the Blooms were finally able to get out on the water to assess the damage, and they found a lot of it.