 The research here at the Auburn University Shellfish Lab incorporates concerns and hurdles by the oyster aquaculture industry as well as the restoration industry. And our purpose is to design applied research projects to address those hurdles. One of the big projects we have going on now is looking at oyster restoration in Little Dolphin Bay, which is just adjacent to Dolphin Island. It has a really rich historical reef harvesting community around it, but unfortunately in recent years those reefs have been depleted. So at the Shellfish Lab we're looking at using aquaculture-based techniques to grow oysters in small clusters so we can place them back into Little Dolphin Bay and hope to restore those historically significant reefs. From a research standpoint also the work that we're doing is helping to improve water quality in the area because oysters are filter feeders and they're filtering out some of the mud that could block sun from getting to the bottom of the bay. My role as an extension specialist is to not only survey the stakeholders and determine what their research needs are, but also to convey the information back to those stakeholders. Right now we're based primarily in oyster aquaculture and restoration, but we are a Shellfish Lab and so we do have plans to extend that footprint into other species. Our goal really is to build the community so that it is healthy for current generations and also for future generations. There are so many things that I love about this research and this job. The oyster community is very tight-knit so we have a nice community of people that we work with. I feel very blessed to be able to work with so many students and young individuals, especially those that are new to aquaculture. There's something special about bringing someone into the lab for a first time and showing them the organisms and how they act and their life cycle and you can just see it spark interest in those students' eyes. That's always the goal is even if they don't stay in the sciences, at least they get a glimpse of it and they can take that information and act as stewards for everybody that they meet outside of the lab.