By Gerald Winegrad

My last column covered the disastrous decline of the Chesapeake Bay oyster population and the major residual ecological and economic effects of the demise of this keystone species. A double play was proposed for reestablishing a flourishing oyster population that once provided two-thirds of all oysters consumed in the world.

The first essential item previously detailed was to phase out the wild public harvest and transition harvesters to aquaculture. Maryland scientists concluded in 2011 that if public oyster harvest had ceased in 1986, oyster abundance would have been 15.8 times greater by 2009. Instead, the population declined by 92%.

The second part of the double play is establishing more new oyster sanctuaries and enhancing existing ones. The science is clear that oyster populations can increase substantially over time from their abysmal 3% of historic populations if we follow this recipe. It is likely that oysters would increase by much more than the 15.8 times as suggested by the 2011 study.

In 2009, Governor Martin O’Malley wisely announced an Oyster Restoration and Aquaculture Development Plan. He fought for legislation that established new oyster sanctuaries that were carved out of Bay oyster bars that could be opened to public harvest. Substantial barriers inhibiting the growing of oysters in aquaculture were removed. Stronger anti-poaching measures were enacted since one-third of oysters on existing sanctuaries were being poached.

These bold initiatives increased the percentage of remaining prime oyster bar habitat protected from harvest from 9% to 24%, from 1,475 acres to 9,000 acres. The state would still maintain more than 150,000 acres of oyster bars that were or could be open to the wild oyster fishery. These measures were enacted to protect and enhance the dwindling oyster population that had decreased by 70% percent since 1994.

The sanctuary and aquaculture initiatives were vigorously opposed by oyster harvesters and the oyster industry. As they had for 140 years, they again fought any proposals that decreased public oyster grounds. Instead, they promoted the government system of paying to plant shell and seed oysters for them to harvest and sell. Such resistance has impeded the switch to aquaculture for 140 years despite the unambiguous evidence that aquaculture could produce an enormous quantity of oysters. This has been the case throughout the world as wild stocks crashed.

Sanctuaries are areas where harvest of oysters is prohibited, and substantial oyster restoration projects can occur to increase oyster populations. Only aquaculture operators may be allowed to harvest oysters in a sanctuary and only if there is substantial natural reproduction and growth of new oysters. Sanctuaries enhance the oyster broodstock population and allow the bivalves to augment reefs that offer crucial habitat to many other Bay species.

Under a Bay Agreement goal, oyster biomass was to be increased by 10-fold from 1994 levels by 2010. Instead, the population declined. In 2014, the goal was abandoned and instead, Maryland and Virginia agreed to each establish five large new sanctuaries by 2025.

These were to be different than previously as they were not simply existing oyster bars declared a sanctuary and closed to harvest. These were to be newly created sanctuaries where productive reefs did not exist. Extensive restoration efforts were to be pursued. Now the good news — all 10 of the new sanctuaries will be completed by the 2025 deadline and a bonus one has been completed in Virginia.

These new reefs require careful planning and the establishment of hard elevated bottom substrate for baby oysters to attach. To be successful, there should be at least 12 inches of substrate although some may be 6 inches. The higher substrate is to ensure protection from smothering siltation and to produce a flourishing reef. Following reef construction with old shells, broken up concrete, reef balls or other hard surfaces, the substrate must be seeded with baby oysters (spat) attached to shell. The spat is the size of your little fingernail.

Once sanctuaries are established, monitoring is done to evaluate success and effects on the ecosystem. This is where ecological exuberance comes in as the results document remarkable reproduction and high numbers of live oysters. For example, the 343-acre Harris Creek sanctuary in Maryland has seen 98% of its reefs meet the minimum threshold for oyster density and biomass. Comparable results are being detected in other sanctuaries. Build the reefs, and they will come.

The 11 new sanctuaries in Maryland and Virginia cover 2,415 acres including enhancement of adjoining preexisting reefs. The cost in Maryland for 1,322 acres was more than $100 million, 66% state money and 34% federal. Virginia’s cost also approaches $100 million. Collectively, this is the world’s largest oyster restoration system.

In an older sanctuary in Virginia’s Greater Wicomico River, eight reefs near one another were created with one foot of old shell substrate in 2004. This 85-acre project cost $2.5 million (75% federal, 25% state) and was in a watershed with few farms or development. There was no poaching. Surveys have shown phenomenal reproduction and growth of oysters and in the size of the reefs.

They have become the true coral reefs of the Chesapeake as in the past with marine organisms flourishing including a significant increase in blue crabs. Eel grass has begun to thrive again. This critical submerged aquatic plant is important for water quality and crab and other species’ habitat. Overall water quality has improved.

The Army Corps of Engineers biologist who spearheaded this project and other sanctuaries in Virginia faced aggressive resistance by oyster-packing houses and a few watermen. Just as in Maryland, these recalcitrants seek to sabotage these sanctuaries. They believe there will be fewer public harvest areas and planting of shell and seed oysters for them to harvest or process. Unfortunately, they can sometimes block such sanctuaries, and some have filed suits to do so.

Unfortunately, the Maryland legislature had to stop then-Governor Larry Hogan from shrinking sanctuaries and opening them to harvest as he catered to the oyster industry. He did succeed in allowing the continuation and expansion of oyster harvest by power dredge, a very destructive practice that had been outlawed in Maryland for decades.

The Army COE has been developing a plan for the largest single sanctuary anywhere — 3,500 acres in the Tangier/Pocomoke Sound in Virginia. It will take years and an enormous amount of substrate at a height of 12 inches. This project could produce an immense flourishing reef system with millions of oysters.

If we can replicate such sanctuary successes in many more areas and close the wild harvest, making the entire Bay a no-harvest sanctuary while switching harvesters to aquaculture, this winning double play will greatly assist in restoring the Bay and helping its critters flourish again.

Sanctuaries must not be opened to wild harvest and poaching must be stopped. Oxygen-depleting nutrients and oyster-smothering sediment must be curtailed particularly from the largest source — agriculture. Accomplishing this could be the triple play that restores oysters to levels not seen for 100 years where every second they perform their magic filtering out nutrients, settling sediment and providing habitat for 300 other species.

Oyster Legislation Proposal 2024

Gerald Winegrad represented the greater Annapolis area as a Democrat in the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate for 16 years. Contact him at gwwabc@comcast.net.