A group of restaurants, caterers and others are working with the nonprofit Oyster Recovery Partnership to collect and return the shells to the Chesapeake Bay where they can help sustain new oysters. The move, announced Thursday, is part of an effort to restore the depleted oyster population. Twenty-one restaurants and others have signed on to the Oyster Shell Recycling Alliance. Shells will be collected weekly and sent to a hatchery where they will be cleaned so that oyster larvae can latch on. About a year later, they will be put back in the bay. The oysters and their shells provide food and habitat for marine life, filter the water and provide jobs. "For every oyster you enjoy, we can put back 10," said Stephan Abel, executive director of the partnership, during a news conference at the Oceanaire restaurant in Harbor East. "Every shell counts."

- Meredith Cohn