Portfolio V: Restoring Oysters To The Chesapeake Bay

The Issue • Our Response • Managing for Success • Achievements • Impacts

Impacts

The ecological role of oysters and oyster reefs has now become an important factor in policy making for the fishery; this reflects a major change in resource management in the Chesapeake Bay from a decade ago, when the leading response to the oyster disease problem largely focused on the potential of importing a nonnative species of oyster. This change in perspective has evolved as a result of scientific findings that have been "broadcast" through wide-ranging outreach efforts of many organizations and agencies, including Maryland Sea Grant. The discourse about oysters and oyster disease has changed and it is reaching virtually all stakeholder interests.

MDSG's Oyster Gardening Educational Handbook

Findings from the Oyster Disease Research Program and its applications have been delivered to hatchery operators through the initiatives of the Brood Stock Management workshops. While the evaluations rated the program highly, comments about the program's relevance may help register its value: Some examples: "The presentations... made me change some of the ways I will think about raising clams" (North Carolina) "We will use a lot of the info coming up this year. We would like to have hands-on training in the nursery/ hatchery." (N.C.) "Need to deal more with the seed issues, ie., growers. Regulatory issues still a major obstacle." (New York) "Made the important point that greater care must be taken in spawning stock." (Massachusetts) "This is the kind of specific workshop we need in this area for people actually working in the industry." (Mass.)

The Maryland State Department of Education recognizes the Sea Grant Oysters in the Classroom and its associated activities as a model lesson for teaching about the oyster role in the ecosystem; the Department now links directly to the Oyster Anatomy Lab on their new website and is part of the website CD for statewide distribution to science. Maryland Sea Grant has the distinction of being the only informal education organization to garner this recognition. Well over a hundred copies of the program have been downloaded in the U.S. and abroad (e.g., Canada, Ecuador, Mexico, Thailand, U.K.)

The involvement of citizens of all ages in oyster gardening for restoration reflect an understanding that did not exist at the beginning of the 90s - the participants in these programs are involved because of a knowledge that oysters may be critical in the ecosystem itself and that their efforts can make a difference. Such knowledge will help empower and sustain the long-term commitment that rehabilitation of Chesapeake Bay oysters will require.