Native oyster chosen for bay restoration

By: Rex Springston | Richmond Times Dispatch
Published: April 07, 2009

The Chesapeake Bay's troubled oysters finally got some good news.

Virginia, Maryland and federal officials said yesterday that they will focus on bringing back the native oyster, casting aside thoughts of putting a fast-growing but ecologically risky Asian oyster in the bay.

"We'll give it a hell of a go for the restoration of the native oyster," said Col. Dionysios Anninos, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' Norfolk District.

The officials announced their consensus decision yesterday during a telephone news conference.

The approach was a victory for environmentalists, who said the Asian oyster could wipe out the remaining native oysters or cause unintended harm such as harboring germs that sicken people.

Virginia's and Maryland's governors and Anninos "have correctly recognized the dangers that non-native oysters pose," said Roy Hoagland, vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group.

The decision was a blow to the Virginia Seafood Council, an industry group that hoped the state would, at least, allow the farming of sterile Asian oysters in underwater cages.

Tests of Asian oysters during the past seven years showed "they grow rapidly, they resist disease, and they are highly acceptable" to consumers, said Frances Porter, executive director of the Seafood Council.

Now, even those tests are out. Some scientists feared that sterile Asian oysters could regain the ability the reproduce and create a population of escapees in the bay.

Last month, the Virginia Seafood Council announced it was withdrawing its application to grow 1.1 million Asian oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.

State and federal officials said it's possible that scientific studies may show one day that the Asian oyster poses little threat. That could open the door to the Asian oyster again if the native one doesn't make a comeback.

But Porter said she doubted that state or federal scientists -- the source of considerable opposition to the Asian oyster -- would take up those kind of studies anytime soon.

"It's not going to happen. It's over" with the Asian oyster, Porter said.

Native oysters once supported a thriving industry; they also filtered impurities from the bay.

But they have plunged to about 1 percent of their population a century ago because of disease and long-ago overfishing, as well as the destruction of shell reefs to which baby oysters cling.

Even with renewed support, the native oyster faces an uncertain future.

The cost of restoration work baywide has averaged about $5 million year since 1994. The funding has increased somewhat in recent years, and officials hope to obtain federal economic-stimulus dollars for the effort.

But officials said yesterday that a credible effort to restore the oyster would cost up to $50 million a year for 10 years -- money no one seems to have.

Whatever money it gets, the restoration will focus on such things as rebuilding reefs and studying why some native oysters show resistance to disease, officials said.

The Corps' Anninos and Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant Jr. said the oyster may make a comeback only in spots where conditions favor reproduction and hinder the spread of disease.

"I'm not so confident that we can bring back the oyster baywide," Anninos said.

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com.