A decision on whether Asian oysters could be approved for cultivation in the Chesapeake Bay could be coming very soon - if it hasn't already been made.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that natural resources secretaries from Maryland and Virginia were to meet "sometime in the next few days" with the head of the Norfolk District of the Army Corps of Engineers to decide whether Crassostrea ariakensis could be grown in the bay. The WP's David Farenthold notes that Maryland officials oppose it, while Virginia's Preston Bryant says he's leaning in favor of allowing oyster farming using chemically sterilized versions of the imported bivalve.  The Corps District commander, Col. Dionysios Anninos, was quoted saying he's "neutral."  (The NOAA photo above shows how the Asian oyster can grow much larger than native C. virginica.)

I understand the states' fisheries folks already have had at least one meeting to hash out positions.

The choice worries environmentalists and many scientists, who argue that even using sterilized oysters, eventually some will reproduce and spread, with unknown effects on native oysters and the bay.  Watermen and seafood processors say a new oyster that can resist diseases ravaging the native bivalves is the only hope of repopulating the bay and riviving the region's once- thriving oyster industry. 

More than 2,000 comments have been received since the Corps released its draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement last October on the future course of oyster restoration efforts in the bay.   Karl Blankenship breaks down the comments in the latest issue of the Bay Journal.  Among the opponents: the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which has been producing the sterile Asian oysters for "pilot" aquaculture projects in that state for years. 

Lastly, a historical note.  Environmental groups dug up a note from 1933 in which Virginia fisheries officials vowed to oppose the introduction in the bay of a Japanese oyster.  "There is grave danger that should any of the Japanese oysters be planted here in the East they will rapidly supplant native stock as they are very prolific and grow much faster and larger than native oysters, although, they do not have as good flavor as our native oyster," the Commission of Fisheries of Virginia wrote.  Of course, back then, the native Eastern oyster was still thriving in the bay.

For more background, go here.