Oyster Sanctuaries to be Open for Harvest? Oysters have begun to come back into the Chesapeake Bay. The recent amount of oysters harvested hasn t been higher in over 30 years. We are seeing fewer diseased oysters than in the past. In 2010, the State of Maryland set aside 24% of the bay as oyster sanctuaries. These are places that are off-limits to the harvesting of oysters. By allowing the largest oysters to remain, they are passing along their ability to survive the deadly oyster diseases. Another reason for the sanctuaries was to create a breeding population of oysters that could potentially spread to new areas. The remaining 76% of the bay is open to watermen to harvest oysters as they have for centuries. This year it was proposed that those sanctuary reefs also be opened up to harvesting by the watermen. Groups like the Chesapeake Oyster Cultivation Society (CBOCS), are against to the plan to open the sanctuaries to harvesting. CBOCS provides the oysters used during the CHESPAX field trips. CBOCS and similar groups have been raising millions of oysters to place on these sanctuary reefs. They want to see the oysters that they have raised remain protected. They do not want to see sanctuary oysters harvested and sold for the seafood industry. Watermen groups see things differently. They have been working on the Chesapeake Bay for generations and feel that they should be able to harvest oysters throughout the entire bay. What do you think? You will write your opinion on a business letter to Governor Hogan or Senator Mike Miller (or your Member of the House of Delegates to explain your position on opening the sanctuary reefs to harvesting. Here is a breakdown of the arguments/counterpoints. Watermen If we don t harvest these oysters they will die anyway from the disease. Oysters left in the bay will spread disease. Dredging the oyster reefs helps to remove the sediment that would bury the oysters. Watermen believe that the oyster restoration program isn t working. They think that we ve spent too much money on the project. Environmental Scientists/CBOCS Allowing the largest oysters to survive means that they will pass along their disease resistance to their offspring. Scientists are also reporting lower rates of disease than have been seen in the past. Dredging the oyster reef flattens the habitat that they create for bay animals. Oysters in the sanctuaries are doing fine without dredging.
Watermen believe that favorable weather conditions led to an increase in oysters and that the restoration efforts had nothing to do with the increase. Some of the sanctuaries were built so high with old oyster shells and rock, that they were damaging watermen s boats. Scientists say that these sanctuaries are doing very well and the oysters have begun to recover. Scientists agree that the weather was a factor. But also believe that the restoration efforts helped to increase oysters in the bay. Scientists agreed to modify the designs of the reefs in some areas to prevent this problem. Map of Oyster Sanctuaries and Public Shellfish areas
Dredging lessons from accidental oyster sanctuaries By Tom Horton September 6, 2016 The oysters came up in the dredge like I hadn t seen them in 50 years. They were huge and clumped together. They were covered with sponges and many other marine organisms, including younger oysters. All of the organisms were thriving in the niches of the natural reef we d just busted into. We found the oysters last winter. We d been dragging the bottom of Virginia s lower York River for a state crab survey. By chance we d nicked into an oyster sanctuary, undisturbed for decades. It wasn t the kind of official sanctuary over which Maryland s oystermen are wrangling with scientists and environmentalists. The current arguing is because watermen want more harvest. Others want the benefits to the Bay s water quality and the habitat of an undisturbed oyster reef. The little reef we struck in Virginia was not even designated on charts. It did not have a special status by law. It was well protected because of its location. Its protection comes from one of the world s largest military-industrial complexes, found here in the lower Chesapeake. Military bases The Coast Guard docks where we intruded, is on the York. The lower James River is home to the world s largest naval force and related private industries. It s a mammoth amount of waterfront infrastructure. A lot of it is just wrapped up with oysters, says Rom Lipcius. Lipcius is one of the Virginia scientists on board our crab survey cruise last winter. Photo by tenplaces with Flickr Creative Commons License
An occasional waterman might think about risking fines for sneaking into an oyster sanctuary in Maryland. Few would consider doing the same under the guns of Naval Station Norfolk. Scientific curiosity led Lipcius to sample oyster densities on just a few concrete piers. Based on that, he says, a rough estimate indicates there might be as many as 6 billion oysters in such refuges. Larvae drifting from those reserves may be what s helping the James sustain commercial oyster harvests, Lipcius says. He d like to study that, but up to now the Navy doesn t seem interested. They really should take some credit. Sewage pollution Virginia also has other places with stealth oyster sanctuaries. A few years ago, scientists were using sonar to explore sites for oyster restoration in downtown Norfolk s Lafayette River. They discovered a series of natural reefs over dozens of acres. They found reefs containing millions of healthy oysters. The largest mollusks measure 6 to 8 inches. These oysters were like the ones we pulled up in the York. Pollution had closed the Lafayette to shellfishing since 1934. It s been so long that no one realized reefs were prospering there. Lipcius thinks the state will designate them as sanctuaries. Since the Lafayette is getting cleaner, and recently reopened to recreational uses, this is probably a good idea. It seems strange that we need military installations and sewage pollution to give nature room to grow. So often you hear if we don t harvest more oysters, shellfish diseases will just kill them. That is partially true about shellfish diseases. It s true that disease will kill some oysters. But no successful disease kills all of its prey. If the disease did that, it would kill itself. The oysters that survive, if we leave them, develop disease resistance. You ll also hear that if you don t work oyster bottoms with tongs and dredges, they quickly become covered in sediment. But, there they are, in the Lafayette River and in the spaces among the military piers, unworked, unmanaged and doing well.
A management challenge Oysters in the wild present a management challenge like no other Bay seafood. With crabs and fish, if you manage well, you can harvest a surplus beyond what s needed to reproduce. But in the wild, oysters are reef builders, offering their largest environmental benefits of habitat and water quality only when undisturbed by tongs and dredges. It s possible to farm oysters in some places, create sanctuaries in others, and let watermen harvest in others. But to date it s a massive management equation. We shouldn t have to rely on big guns and pollution or offer sanctuary to oysters. Tom Horton has written about Chesapeake Bay for more than 40 years, including eight books. He lives in Salisbury. He is also a professor of Environmental Studies at Salisbury University. Modified by Janel McPhillips From National Wildlife Federation Blogsite http://blog.nwf.org/2016/08/is-maryland-shucking-its-oystersanctuaries/ Conservation IS MARYLAND SHUCKING ITS OYSTER SANCTUARIES? NEW REPORT ASSESSES OYSTER SANCTUARY PROGRAM Jen Mihills August 9, 2016
Just a few hundred years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine the Chesapeake Bay without oysters. The expansive, vertical reefs European settlers encountered were so large they posed a navigation hazard to passing boats. Today, the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) has been reduced to less than one percent of its historic population in the Chesapeake Bay. OYSTERS ON THE BRINK The once bountiful oysters of the Chesapeake Bay have been critically depleted due to a number of factors:
Eastern oyster. Photo from NOAA Over-harvesting By the late 1800 s nearly 20 million oysters were harvested from the Bay each year, supporting a booming seafood industry, supplying almost half the world s supply of oysters, and even prompting Oyster Wars. Pollution and sedimentation Polluted runoff from agricultural, urban, and suburban development, deforestation, and wetland destruction threaten the health of the Bay and its inhabitants, including oysters. Nutrient pollution from over-fertilization and animal waste from agricultural operations cause algae blooms and can lead to dead-zones (low oxygen areas) in the Bay. Sediment can cover reefs, suffocating oysters and other shellfish. Climate change Carbon pollution, created by burning fossil fuels like coal, causes acidification of our waterways. Scientists are concerned that higher acidity levels may already be making it harder for oysters and other shellfish to produce the calcium carbonate needed to form their shells. Disease Oysters are threatened by two parasitic diseases, Dermo and MSX. Stress caused by impaired water quality can make oysters more susceptible to diseases. SANCTUARY FOR OYSTERS At the end of July 2016, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released a new report assessing the first five years of the expanded oyster sanctuary program. The program, initiated by the 2004 Chesapeake Bay Oyster Management Plan created these sanctuaries as areas permanently closed to harvest to help oyster populations begin to recover. In 2010, Maryland expanded the scale of its oyster sanctuaries to include 51 sites, 24% of the productive oyster bottom remaining in
Maryland s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The balance of the productive oyster bottom (76%) remained open to the public shellfish fishery. DNR s report demonstrates that oysters appear to be thriving in the sanctuaries, while continuing to struggle in other locations in the Bay. Surprisingly, the report also suggests there is justification to consider adjustments to the boundaries and potentially opening once off-limits areas to harvest. However, Maryland s oysters need more time to fully recover. OYSTERS NEEDED FOR HEALTHY BAY Oysters are essential, natural filters for the Bay. A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day removing nutrients and sediment suspended in the water column. At historic population levels, oysters could filter a volume of water equal to that of the entire Bay (about 19 trillion gallons) in a week. Today, it would take the remaining Bay oysters more than a year. A critical component of the Chesapeake Bay food web, oysters are an important food source for shorebirds like the American oystercatcher, crabs, anemones, sea nettles, and some fish. Oyster reefs also provide critical habitat and safe haven for many species of fish and other aquatic life.
Oystercatchers are just one species that rely on oysters Photo by Kathy Reeves, National Wildlife Photo Contest Climate change is contributing to more frequent and severe storm events and contributing to sea level rise. Oyster reefs provide natural protection against coastal storms by attenuating or dissipating waves and by retaining sediment. To help restore oyster populations, the National Wildlife Federation advocates for clean water policies at the state and federal level to protect the Chesapeake Bay and helped launch the Choose Clean Water Coalition in 2009. The National Wildlife Federation is working to ensure a more resilient Chesapeake Bay utilizing natural and nature-based solutions. Together with sustainable land use practices and efforts to reduce polluted runoff, we will continue to help oyster populations to ensure a clean Chesapeake Bay.