DATE: Sunday, November 9, 1997              TAG: 9711070303

SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN             PAGE: 23   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   25 lines

LESSONS ON THE HALF SHELL

Seventh grade students at W.E. Waters Middle School in Portsmouth are spending their afterschool hours at Thomas Hazelwood's pier in Crittenden, tending to over 2,000 baby oysters in science, math, history and language arts. The project, supported by Chesapeake Bay Foundation, hopes to restore 5,000 acres of oyster reefs. The student's oysters are destined for a recently constructed reef in the Lynnhaven River. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II

Jennifer Hobbs, left, and Megan Kuptz count the growing oysters,

checking for the number of live and dead ones.

Teacher Cathy Roberts helps student Gamaliel Norman take a saltwater

percentage reading.

Tiniqua Burgess, front, helps Michael Vaughan pull up a float filled

with oysters at a pier in Eclipse.

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