PADRE ISLAND, Texas — Have you ever wondered what happens to your oyster shells after you’re done eating them?
At Doc’s Seafood and Steaks, more than 64,000 pounds of them have gone to help rebuild Texas oyster reefs over the last three years.
The restaurant received a plaque this week marking its three-year anniversary with Sink Your Shucks, an oyster shell recycling program led by the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
Doc’s first collection in November 2023 brought in 300 pounds of shell. This September, the restaurant hit a record 2,900 pounds in a single month, according to the program.
Before Doc’s joined, manager Jackson Soward said the shells had a very different ending.
“A lot of them ended up in the dumpster. Yeah, a lot of them were thrown away,” Soward said…