WHY IT MATTERS

French Hermit's conservation work is best understood as participation in conservation projects, supporting oyster-restoration efforts, and taking part in education and research partnerships. We are one participant in a much larger coastal effort, and we are proud of our contributions to the Mississippi Gulf!

Oyster Reefs are both a habitat and a part of the natural infrastructure that improves water quality and buffers shorelines. For French Hermit, that makes conservation inseparable from the oyster business: the same coastal system that produces food also deserves care.

Have oyster shells left after a meal? Bring clean oyster shells to French Hermit's Save Our Shells collection point and help keep them in the restoration cycle!

 

 

SAVE OUR SHELLS

French Hermit was the very first public collection location for The Nature Conservancy's Save Our Shells program. The French Hermit Farm Store serving as a public drop-off point in Ocean Springs gives people a practical way to keep clean oyster shells in the restoration cycle (instead of sending them to the landfill).

Collected shells move through a larger restoration process. The Nature Conservancy explains that shells are delivered to a facility ran by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources to be processed and cured before being used as cultch (material that provides substrate for oyster restoration).

 

Please no trash (napkins, lemons) AND no trash bags dropped off with your oyster shells! Drop-offs welcome 24/7/365!

Just dump the shells straight into any one of the three black SOS collection bins. The bins are located along our fence, directly beneath the billboard beside the French Hermit Farm Store.

 

 

LIVING SHORELINES

French Hermit and C. Cenac & Company have contributed to living-shoreline work in the Back Bay of Biloxi. A 2024 project included specially designed reef bags, equipment, and other resources intended to reduce erosion and establish oyster-reef habitat. Living shorelines are a broader coastal-resilience approach that can combine native vegetation and oyster habitat with other nature-based features. They are designed to work with the shoreline rather than simply walling the water away.

 

GROWING NATIVE PLANTS

French Hermit has also been connected with Mississippi State University's Native Plant Producer Network, which helps expand the local supply of native wetland plants for restoration. Our role should be described accurately: participation and growing through the network, not ownership of the university program.

 

OYSTER RESTORATION & RESEARCH

In 2025, French Hermit and C. Cenac & Company were identified as participants in a direct-setting oyster-restoration effort in the Mississippi Sound. The project explored placing oyster larvae directly onto reefs rather than relying on the conventional intermediate tank-setting step. Watch the video here!

French Hermit also participates in the broader scientific and industry conversation around Mississippi oyster aquaculture. University, Sea Grant, regulatory, and our many farming partners are working together to learn more about how the industry can grow responsibly.

You can visit our YouTube to see more on our conservation efforts here.