Melbourne-based Harris Corp. teamed up with the Brevard Zoo to build a machine that will help speed up the oyster bed restoration process.

  • Engineers at Harris Corp. designed an oyster-bagging machine
  • The machine helps volunteers bag oysters faster than by hand
  • The oyster bags serve as foundation of new roofs put in the lagoon

The new tool, called an oyster-bagging machine, will allow volunteers to stock up on bags that serve as the foundation of new reefs that are put in the lagoon waters as part of the zoo's Restore Our Shores program.

An assembly line of used shells are shoveled into buckets and then put on a conveyor belt that leads to two chutes.

Then, 40-pound bags are filled twice as fast compared to what volunteers could do by hand using PVC pipe tubes.

Previously, about 40 zoo volunteers would work for three hours at a time. Now, six people can use the machine and save on back-breaking work.

"Doing it with just manpower — volunteers — isn't really sustainable," said Jake Zehnder, of the Brevard Zoo's conservation department. "And wearing people out."

A six-member engineering team spent four months designing and creating the machine.

"Make something effective, make something easy to use by volunteers, so that they can come here time and time again, do their work and make the river a better place," said Ihosvany Garcia, an engineer at Harris Corp.

The piles of oyster shells come from Brevard County restaurants and are spared from the garbage. It takes about 2,400 bags to create an oyster reef covering roughly 1,000 feet of the lagoon.

The program is key when it comes to replenishing filter feeders and water-cleaning abilities in the wake of toxic algae blooms in recent years.

"This is a great way for us to keep up our productivity and restore the amount of lagoon we are going to need to get it back on its feet," Zehnder said.

The zoo plans to begin using the machine this month in its ongoing Indian River Lagoon restoration efforts.

In November, voters passed a half-cent sales tax that will pump $300 million into the cause over the next decade.


Previously, about 40 zoo volunteers would work for three hours at a time. Now, six people can use the machine and save on back-breaking work. (Greg Pallone, staff)