The next time you slurp an oyster at a local raw bar, the shell could end up back in the water, helping to grow the next generation of oysters.
That is the goal of Jax Oyster Conservation, a new nonprofit that collects oyster shells from seafood restaurants in Jacksonville and the Beaches and uses them to restore oyster reefs and shorelines in Northeast Florida.
Founder and director Hunter Mathews, who was born and raised in Jacksonville and has lived in Ponte Vedra and Atlantic Beach, said the idea grew out of his graduate research at the University of North Florida. Other parts of Florida and the Atlantic Coast already had programs to recycle shells and rebuild reefs. Jacksonville didn’t…