New York seeks to claw back 'Big Oyster' past

NEW YORK - One sunny morning in New York, a dozen biologists and volunteers stand in knee-deep water, chucking net sacks of oyster shells down a human chain, before planting them in containers on the riverbed.

Why? To build an oyster reef.

The goal? To restore a billion oysters by 2035 to the largest city in the United States - not as a delicacy for the dinner table but in an environmental bid to clean up its notoriously filthy harbor water and generate greater biodiversity.