The local lifestyle brand showcases its mission with Shellabration, an annual waterfront fundraiser supporting healthier coastal ecosystems
On a low-tide morning at the Pitt Street Bridge, the water pulls back to reveal long, straight ridges of shell where there was once only mud. Runners and dog-walkers pass a small sign staked into the bank, marking an acre of reef that wouldn’t exist without a company that began, improbably, with an oyster knife.
Toadfish, the Charleston-based, coastal lifestyle brand built on a “Put ’Em Back” philosophy, has grown from a James Island backyard shed into one of the Lowcountry’s most tangible conservation stories. Founder Casey Davidson launched the company in 2016 with an efficient oyster knife, and a mission of replanting oyster beds, using funds from five percent of every sale.
Davidson, a 14th-generation Beaufort native, was raised among commercial shrimpers and oystermen with “oyster leases in our family for over 100 years,” he says. After observing development pressure and “explosive population growth” eroding the waterways he grew up on, he was inspired to build a business around recycling oysters. “I wanted to do something I felt could make a positive impact.”
Water quality is at the heart of that mission, as oysters are ecosystem engineers that filter up to 50 gallons of water daily, provide habitat for more than 100 marine species, and buffer marsh grasses from wave energy that would otherwise erode the shoreline. Oyster habitat loss ripples through the entire food chain, contributing to declining crab and striped bass populations.
In 2019, Toadfish formalized the Toadfish Conservation Coalition, a nonprofit arm that accepts direct donations for conservation—bolstering the percentage of sales the company already gives—and operates almost entirely on volunteer support. Since 2016, Toadfish has donated more than $500,000 to restoration work and helped plant more than 300,000 square feet of oyster reef across eight coastal states—from Texas to New Jersey—enough habitat to filter more than 82 million gallons of water every day.
Some of the money purchases shells for projects like the Virginia Oyster Shell Recycling Program, the largest ongoing oyster restoration effort in the country. Other funds go toward spat, the larval oysters that attach to old shells to form new reefs. And another portion supports recycling operations like Georgia’s Shell to Shore, which keeps shucked shells out of landfills and puts them back in the water where baby oysters need to grow. Outside South Carolina, the coalition looks to fund projects set in places with the highest need for improved water quality.
Closer to home, one of this year’s major initiatives is a large reef deployment with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) at Fort Johnson. The experimental project will test alternative reef substrates, including bamboo, to see what materials grow reefs most effectively. The coalition is also exploring support for DNR’s green shell project—which relocates mature, live oyster clusters to seed new reefs—and the workforce and equipment needed to scale those efforts.
Davidson notes that many people don’t realize that shells from an oyster roast or restaurant belong back in the water. “It should be as much of a no-brainer as putting a plastic bottle in the recycling bin,” he says. Despite the DNR’s free shell-recycling program, fewer than a third of eligible restaurants participate, forcing the state to buy much of the 40,000 bushels it restores each year.
The work culminates each fall at Shellabration, Toadfish’s annual fundraiser at Bowen’s Island Restaurant, where local eateries serve seafood-focused bites, including oysters from area farms, and a silent auction raises money to help restore Lowcountry waterways. “For me, it’s the immersive nature of the event,” Davidson says of watching Thomas Bierce of Charleston Oyster Farm shuck the Perky Sea Cups he raised and harvested from the Stono River just four hours earlier. “My life’s goal is to get to where we’re replanting more oysters than we’re taking out annually,” he says.
Shellabration is on November 8, with a VIP ($200) happy hour at 1:30 p.m. and general admission ($100) running from 3 to 7 p.m. All proceeds go directly to conservation. Buy tickets at toadfish.com/products/shellabration-2026.
