Military turns to oyster reefs to protect against storms

MIDDLETOWN, New Jersey - Earle Naval Weapons Station, where the US Navy loads some of the country's most sophisticated weapons onto warships, suffered $50 million worth of damage in Superstorm Sandy. Now the naval pier is fortifying itself with some decidedly low-tech protection: Oysters.

The facility has allowed an environmental group to plant nearly a 1.6-kilometer oyster reef about 400 meters off its shoreline to serve as a natural buffer to storm-driven wave damage.

Other military bases are enlisting the help of oysters, too. In June, environmental groups and airmen established a reef in the waters of Elgin Air Force Base Reservation in Florida, and more are planned nearby. Oysters also help protect Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.