Oyster farmers transfer truckloads of oysters to Quonochontaug Pond from West Beach Road in Charlestown Friday. The Providence Journal Andrew Dickerman

John West slowed his aluminum workboat in a rocky corner of Quonochontaug Pond and stood by while crew members tipped large plastic totes of oyster shells into the water. Each shell was covered with oysters, each one about the size of a quarter or more.

In maybe an hour it took to make two trips between the boat launch and the new oyster reef Friday morning, the team of local oyster growers and federal and state biologists used 100 totes to transplant more than 1 million oysters into the pond. They hope these oysters will thrive in a protected sanctuary and breed enough to one day fill the 700-acre pond with oysters.

During the next several years, this unusual team plans to transplant 30 million young oysters into all the South County salt ponds, several locations around Narragansett Bay and three places in Block Island’s Great Salt Pond.

If they succeed, they could restore what was once a healthy fishery in Rhode Island — one that filtered local waters, created reefs that harbored other forms of marine life and provided food for people and fish and birds.

The project will cost the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service some $2 million over four years. The department thinks the transplants are unusual because they are the first large scale oyster restoration project based solely on the work of local oyster farmers.

The team Friday included Justin Tuthill, district conservationist for the NRCS, Dennis Erkan, a marine biologist for the state Department of Environmental Management, and the oyster farmers: Robert Krause of Ninigret Oyster Farm, and John and Cindy West and Barry Cherms of Cedar Island Oyster Co. in Point Judith Pond.

In all, the federal conservationists are working with 13 local oyster growers to raise young oysters, do the transplants and then help monitor the results.

Others involved in the effort include the University of Rhode Island, the Coastal Resources Management Council, Roger Williams University and The Nature Conservancy.

Oysters were once common in Rhode Island waters, but quantities have dwindled radically as a result of diseases, storms, overfishing and pollution.

Restoration efforts are never easy. One campaign to transplant millions of young scallops into the ponds, using restoration funds from the North Cape oil spill, was a failure. The tiny scallops were nearly all eaten by predators.

Government biologists think the oyster restoration will be more successful because they are using older and larger oysters, experienced oyster growers, and sanctuary beds that will prevent fishermen from harvesting the oysters that are seeding the ponds.

Just six oysters produced the seeds that the oyster farmers took to a hatchery on Cape Cod. The seeds were dropped into huge tanks along with bags of oyster shells. With careful nurturing, the young were hatched and they attached to the shells.

The oyster farmers then took the bags of “cultch,” as they’re called, back to their farms where they tended them for several months as the seed oysters grew. The farmers certified the oysters were free of disease.

Tuthill said the biologists believe it was critical to use local oyster farmers who already have proven track records in raising the animals.

Krause said the project compelled the farmers to work together, a respite from often working alone on their oyster farms. It also provides another diverse source of income.

“It took a lot of work behind the scenes to get to this point,” Krause said, after transplanting one boatload of oysters, and returning to the landing for another. “Then it’s over so quickly.

By next year, the biologists expect the oysters will be fully grown and spawning.

For more information go to: www.ri.nrcs.usda.gov/news/PDF/OysterRestorationProject6_09.pdf

plord@projo.com