Reef in remembrance
Nonprofit commits to restoring Lynnhaven River for mollusks
VIRGINIA BEACH— You might wonder why a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the water quality of the Lynnhaven River is naming an oyster reef after one of the city workers killed in the Virginia Beach mass shooting.
But there’s a good reason: Mary Louise Gayle, you see, was a friend of the oysters. As a right-of-way agent for the city, she helped the nonprofit and local environmentalists preserve space in the river for the development of oyster reefs.
That’s why Lynnhaven River Now, the nonprofit committed to restoring the waterway, will create a 1-acre oyster reef in the river in Gayle’s name. It will be called the Mary Lou Gayle Memorial Oyster Reef.
Gayle, 65, worked for the city’s Public Works Department for 24 years before she was tragically gunned down in her office building. A city engineer killed 12 people and severely injured four others on May 31, 2019.
Lynnhaven River Now will soon begin constructing the reef with 10,000 bushels of oyster shells that will become new homes for oysters and help clean the water.
This week, the City Council unanimously approved the use of the shells for the project, which are stored at the landfill. The shells are recycled from local restaurants.
Brent James, an oyster restoration coordinator for Lynnhaven River Now, got to know Gayle a few years ago while negotiating a proposal to trade space in the river to help the city complete a dredging project.
The city needed to dredge through James’ leased space so Gayle came up with the idea to give him another area to lay his oyster shells in exchange for the other space, James said. It was his idea to honor Gayle and to give a space for her family, friends and co-workers to remember her.
“I think it is only appropriate that she gets memorialized,” James said.
James said he started collecting discarded oyster shells and throwing them under his dock and along his shoreline at his home along the Eastern Branch of the Lynnhaven River in the 1990s. Since then, he amassed 44 acres of oyster leases in the river for sanctuary purposes. He has been a volunteer with Lynnhaven River Now since the organization started in 2002.
Lynnhaven River Now has added about 100 acres of sanctuary oyster reef to the Lynnhaven River and has a goal to add about
50 more by 2025, James said.
Once the reef is completed, Lynnhaven River Nowwill host an event to name it and allow those who were close to Gayle to throw shells into the water.
Gayle’s daughter, Sarah Gayle Leonard, said she thinks the reef will be a beautiful gesture that will put a little bit of positivity into the world.
“I think it is phenomenal,” she said. “As time passes, things seem to be popping up around the city to remind me how important my mom was to everyone.”