Woman aims to preserve shore life with an artificial reef in Lynnhaven River

Pam Ponce’s artificial oyster reef at Great Neck Park is tiered – lower on the ends, higher in the middle. The shells disappear when the tide comes in, then reappear. (john h. sheally ii/the virginian-pilot)

By SCOTT HARPER
The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH — Wearing a wet suit and slogging through black mud, Pam Ponce is making art in the Lynnhaven River.

Or is it science?

Or maybe both?

“Some people are not sure what I’m up to,” Ponce said during a break last week.

As part of her master’s degree in fine arts, Ponce is completing an intriguing sculpture on the marshy edge of Great Neck Park in Virginia Beach – a crescent-shaped artificial oyster reef, serving both art and science.

Measuring 48 feet across, the meticulously stacked reef can be seen by the public from the park’s gazebo – while it lasts. Storms or boat wakes or natural erosion may knock it out.

Ponce is photographing her creation, which took more than a year to plan, permit and build, for an exhibition at the Hermitage Foundation and Museum in Norfolk on Sept. 7 .

For science-sake, the reef is intended to help the Lynnhaven’s ailing ecosystem by restoring native oysters and gently protecting the shoreline from waves and erosion – without installing concrete or wood bulkheads.

For art-sake, it is an example of “ecological art,” a nouveau style that sprung from the 1970s and environmental activism. Instead of drawing a picture of an oyster reef or painting one on a canvas, Ponce has created one in nature, but with a twist of symbolism.

The crescent shape, she described, illustrates the importance of the moon and tides to oyster growth and the river as a whole.

And the tiered structure of the reef – lower on the ends, higher in the middle – makes its white shells slowly fade and disappear as the tide comes in, then slowly rise again into view when the tide goes out.

No wonder the project is entitled “Ebb and Flow.”

“It’s my way of saying, ' this is important, this is meaningful,’” Ponce said. “It’s a gesture of healing, of showing what this ecosystem needs. It’s a very personal thing.”

Two local environmental groups, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Lynnhaven River 2007, have taken an interest in the effort.

Group leaders hope the sculpture persuades waterfront residents to cultivate oysters and to protect their backyards with “living shorelines” – marsh grasses, wetlands and oyster reefs, instead of manmade structures such as bulkheads and riprap.

“We’re looking for sites with high erosion where we might do more of these projects,” said Christy Everett , executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Hampton Roads office.

Ponce said she has been interested in environmental issues for years, dating to when she was studying biology in preparation for becoming a pediatrician. She also has lived on the Lynnhaven for the past 28 years .

After retiring from medicine, she decided to go back to school “and do something really interesting to me.” She enrolled in the m aster’s program for fine arts, a joint program between Old Dominion University and Norfolk State University.

Before enrolling, she had been painting nature scenes and plants and making them into silk screens.

Ponce did so from a work space in the D’Art Center in Norfolk.

For her m aster’s thesis, she thought up the oyster reef, after attending several meetings of the Lynnhaven River 2007 group.

One of its primary missions is to clean up the river so native oysters can again be grown and eaten directly from the river; the Lynnhaven has been closed to shellfish harvesting for decades because of high levels of bacteria pollution.

Ponce had to talk to site neighbors, the city parks department and government regulators before gaining approval.

She has brought in about 70 bushels of native oyster shells to make the reef, much of it packed into the muddy shallows to anchor the structure.

For the past month, she has been piecing the top layers of the shells by hand, without adhesives.

She wears Playtex gloves while fitting the shells together in a handsome, herringbone design.

Asked if she would ever do another reef sculpture, perhaps for commercial purposes elsewhere on the Lynnhaven, Ponce just chuckled.

“No, no,” she said. “It’s too hard on me, takes too much time.”

What if this one collapses and washes away?

“Well,” she sighed, “I guess I’ll just let nature take its course.”