Chesapeake Oyster Alliance members from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Minorities in Aquaculture took to the water Friday to drop around 12,000 young oysters and oyster spat-on-shell into the York River.

The oysters will settle onto a sanctuary reef where they will grow to continue efforts to save the oysters and the bay.The oysters, including the oyster spat, were all grown by CBF, said CBF Virginia Oyster Restoration Specialist Julie Luecke. A number of the oysters were grown through CBF’s oyster gardening program. The program sees people raise their own oysters after attending a seminar to learn how.

The oyster gardeners take a year to raise their oysters in suspended cages either at their personal docks or at designated public areas. The oysters are returned to CBF during one of its Oyster Roundups to be placed on sanctuary reefs.

Spat is a term for infant oysters that grow on recycled shells, said Luecke. Growing spat and recy...