THE SHO CLUB
Our Mission
Mostly Harrisons the 1st ten years, with Simon, Colin & Stephanie raising oysters seasonally in the low tide regions of Sag Harbor, Southampton and Easthampton. In the last five years we have a lot of citizen scientists, actual scientists, and locals throughout The Hamptons, Maine, NJ and Maryland, Florida, New Brunswick and even Nova Scotia which is a mere 320 miles away from Sag Harbor. Entry into The Sag Harbor Oyster Club was easy, you just had to say you were on board, as Simon Harrison Real Estate funded everything needed. Since then, nothing has changed, except we use TheSHOclub for short and now it's TheSHOclub.org because it's a federally recognized, tax deductible non profit organization. It does help if you're fascinated with zooplankton, bayscaping, the marine food chain, and look up things like eutrophic conditions, atmospheric and terrestrial carbon capture, and know the ideal PH range for anadromous species while concurrently having a disdain for invasive species. Just sayin'
Welcome to The SHO Club
A Tax-Deductible Invitation to Help Turn the Tide
Since 2011, The SHO Club has been laser-focused on one mission: restore oysters to their ancestral reefs so they can do what they do best—clean our water, protect our coastlines, and regenerate marine life from the bottom up. In 2021, we became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to scale that work—and we’ve since added two powerful, synergistic legs to support our mission to "turn the tide" and mitigate our impact on the tidal reach. These three jobs are keystone, and as such not only have silo benefits, but they weave together beautifully. This effort took a decade to keep it simple. The Tidal Reach, Riverine Watersheds, and Lawning to help 40M acres of lawns evolve away from green carpets hungry for chemical diets to local food. One Reef, One River, One Lawn at a time. The SHO Club 2025.
Oysters that vacuum up harmful algae and rebuild vital reef habitat from zooplankton to gamefish.
Salmon returning to clean rivers via simple, proven pH repair, with a side order orf carbon capture credits.
Food Lawning & Forestry that absorbs runoff and feeds people, not just algae blooms and infertile invasive plants.
Together, these three initiatives form a self-reinforcing loop that restores the "first mile" of the ocean where saltwater meets land—the single most biologically productive zone on Earth. We have funded the first and last dollar and every effort back to front through 2025; the first 15 years. We see extraordinary benefits, and a need vacuum for what we are doing and now we'd like your help. Donors get a 100% tax deduction—plus the satisfaction of doing something real. We are told that actually doing something in this space relieves some of the free-floating anxiety and concern about the great outdoors and the natural order of things. You can play a small or a large part, and we scale as funded. We have four $3,000 projects which include information for homeowners distributed through local newspapers; we have $5-50,000 projects to create an oyster reef; convert a carpet lawn to food; an orchard and of equal importance is the significant 6-10 year initiative to bring back Atlantic Salmon to a local river that used to have robust runs for 5,000 years. This budget starts at 3M and creates a forever story at $6M. Feasibility studies, budgets, time frames are in. That's a legacy project, and because of the carbon capture credits, it grows into a self funding project that can be imported. We already have exclusive access to a mile of frontage, and have the talent & resources on hold. Just need effective sponsors.
What We’re Doing
- Rebuilding shellfish reefs with 35,000+ adult oysters and counting
- Turning lawns into food-producing gardens and perennial food forests
- Agliming rivers to bring wild Atlantic Salmon back to historic runs
- Fighting harmful runoff by replacing fertilizers with forest cover
- Preparing additional marine reserves and testing water for recovery targets
- Running all future operations lean: 10% admin cap, 10% fundraising cap
- We have self-funded the first 15 years with 100% to clean water initiatives
- Enabled significant donor benefits to insure immediate & future success
Our Goals Short Term & Beyond
By 2026:
- 25 lawns converted to food gardens
- 25 food forests planted, also over lawn area
- Water testing & lime dosers sited
- Marine reserves secured for oyster regrowth
By 2030:
- One million protected oysters in biodiverse reef zones- 1000+ food gardens & forest conversions complete
By 2035:
- Bring back 100,000 wild Atlantic Salmon to a river that used to have a robust population.
How You Can Help
We’ve self-funded this movement for 15 years. Now we need you to scale the solution by funding the initiatives. You or your company can fund an oyster reef, fund a PH rise in part of a river sourced in the wilderness, switch out a lawn for food to reduce chemical loading or all three. They do fit well together, and not by SHO club design, just the natural order of these things. Oysters need very little help in filter feeding, growing to scale, reproducing regularly, but they need to be protected from predators including poachers.
Replace a corner of your lawn area with a food garden; add fruit & nut trees. We can do this for you locally, or anywhere in The USA.
If you sign a pledge to replace lawn area and restrict chemical uses we can get it done for you at 100% tax deduction.
You can sponsor a lawn replacement food garden in your neighborhood or anywhere in the US. Read that again.
This creates food which can be donated to a local food bank, and can be built in a mall, or on a road median with permissions.
Help us amend the PH in a watershed so the Salmon return, and return frisky enough to spawn. Agliming dosers, shell crush, and other tried and true gold standard methods plus novel applications to raise PH levels
We will engage Remote Stream Incubator, (RSIs) which increase viability from 9% to as high as 87%, imprint on their home stream No pumps, no chemicals, no electronics, no antibiotics...gravity fed using the nature of the home river.
Donate to one initiative—or all three—via our interactive SHO Club Menu.
Each dollar gets us closer to clean water, resilient coasts, and edible landscapes.
- 100% tax-deductible- Future carbon credit share potential
- Food donations to qualified food banks may qualify for second deductions
Because all water is connected.
The best time to grow an apple tree is 10 years ago. The second best time is today. We can do this.
Our History
■ The SHO Club: How It Started
The SHO Club began simply—one family participating in a local oyster co-op in Sag Harbor. With guidance from bayman Jon Semlear and original co-op founder Joe T, Colin, Xander, Randy and Simon placed our first cages in Long Beach waters, launching with 8,000 oyster seeds. Others brought another 8,000. We moved our oysters under The Mobil Dock in Sag Harbor Village with permissions from then Mayor Gilbride, Sag Harbor Village Trustees, The Harbor Committee steered by Bruce Tait, and a lease written by Fred Thiele. For the first decade, Simon Harrison Real Estate fully funded the project, while The Hamptons House store helped spread the message with apparel designed by graffiti artist Keene Carse, who also donated the SHO Club logo.
The Real Estate Office also helped fund the first year of Conscience Point Shellfish hatchery, another non-profit which is still going strong. There were other contributions to The Saco River Salmon Club which spent eight years where volunteers manned hatchery operations on that watershed's salmon comeback before they had adults spawned in that river come back from the sea to spawn. Other locals hung oyster racks & cages under their docks, and we believe we made a positive difference in a time where HABs were blowing up more frequently and increasing in intensity. The years of pandemic population growth locally has increased the pressure.
We raised and released more than 35,000 adult oysters—each filtering 40–50 gallons of water a day—helping rebuild historic reef systems now thriving in their 15th year. We like to say: “Oysters are our friends.” We hope to add to their efforts at repopulation AND protect them in the places we need them to thrive.
Then came phase two: wild salmon. We secured exclusive access to over a mile of a river that once supported thriving salmon runs, sourced from 1.5 million acres of pristine wilderness in the UNESCO-protected Nova Scotia Biosphere. This mile of untouched river system is now ground zero for a wild salmon comeback. As far as we know The SHO Club is the sole sponsor of a Salmon Habitat Restoration Effort, and like oyster reef repopulation efforts, we remain under the regulatory arms of many agencies and local stakeholders. That process is daunting, and our seasoning as real estate brokers & developers comes into play, with the key differences that our sole effort is to support the natural order instead of pave it over. We have found many friends in regulatory, and in the marine sciences at local educational institutions.
The benefits are profound: returning seagoing fish carry vital minerals inland that strengthen forests and reduce fire risk. More importantly, liming rivers like this creates carbon sinks—natural systems that capture and carry carbon to the sea. In fact, one major tech company recently bought $25.4 million in carbon credits using this exact technique on a nearby river. We're applying that same science here. When successful, carbon credit revenue will be shared equally with donors. Our third focus is on clean water messaging and real estate stewardship. Over 15 years, SHO Club members have supported hatcheries, salmon clubs, and other nonprofits while also promoting low-chemical landscaping and native planting—key upgrades that boost home values and reduce maintenance costs. A thriving backyard ecosystem is worth more, emotionally and financially.
From oyster reefs to wild salmon to food forestry and lawn swaps, we’ve been planting the seeds—literally and figuratively—for over a decade. Now, as a formal 501(c)(3) nonprofit since 2021, we’re accepting tax-deductible donations to scale this work further, supported by science, inspired by nature, and backed by you.
Clean water is worth fighting for, and all water is connected.
