A 1.2-mile-long low rock breakwater was constructed in two phases, the first in May 2017 and the second in August 2022, to protect a severely eroding marsh. The project was built in Matagorda Bay, Texas. Freese and Nichols, Inc. designers wer forced to consider tradeoffs between building a tall breakwater which would protect a shorter reach of marsh or a shorter breakwater that would extend further but might not offer the same level of protection with sea level rise as a taller breakwater. 

Observations by the design team along the Texas coast indicated oysters colonize structures up to 0.5 feet above MSL. Live oysters do not persist at that level but will continue to settle there. Based on this information, the team decided to construct the breakwater with a crest 0.5 feet above MHW, hoping oysters would colonize the sides of the breakwater and its top as sea level rose. In less than three years after construction, oysters were colonizing the top of the breakwater. With time, it is hoped the rock breakwater forms the core of a living yster reef that continues to vertically accrete with oyster growth.

Seventy days post-construction, dense accumulations of one-inch long oysters had formed. Oysters over 2.5 inches long were seen 6.5 months later, and oysters over 5 inches long were found less than three years. Oysters were also encountered growing under breakwater rocks. 

In addition to addressing the question whether oysters would colonize the top of the breakwater, there was concern whether oysters would colonize the high energy, bay side, of the breakwater facing Matagorda Bay that receives waves generated across 12 miles of fetch along the axis of prevailing southeast winds. To date oysters have colonized both sides of the breakwater although they do not seem to appear as high on the bay side of the breakwater.