By Alabama Public Radio
Washington, DC – A four-point-three million dollar federal grant will help the state restore about 18-hundred acres of oyster reefs. About 80 percent of the reefs were broken apart or buried by Hurricane Ivan. The money is part of nine million dollars in grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida received money to restore their reefs. The three-year restoration program will primarily focus on Cedar Point Reef, which is north of Dauphin Island. Alabama oystermen catch an average of about three-and-a-half million dollars worth of oysters every year.