Another skirmish over Asian oysters
Virginia's seafood industry is seeking permission to grow 1.1 million Asian oysters over the next year, even as Maryland, Virginia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wrestle over whether the imported bivalves should have a role in restoring the Chesapeake Bay's depleted oyster population.
The Virginia Seafood Council asked the state to let 11 growers plant batches of 100,000 sterile Asian oysters in cages and bags around the bay and on the ocean side of the Eastern Shore, according to The Virginian-Pilot. It quoted the council's executive director, Frances Porter, saying the Newport News-based industry group has been experimenting with the non-native oyster for seven years now without any problems.
Environmental groups and federal environmental agencies have weighed in against the request, however. They argue that even such limited trials risk an accidental release of reproducing Asian oysters into the bay, where they could spread and harm efforts to bring back native oysters.
In a letter to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the bay office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service argues that the Asian oysters are not truly sterile, and that they are still capable of reproduction. The agency says reproduction may already have happened from earlier experiments, but has so far been undetected.
And, says the federal wildlife agency, there have been at least 11 instances in the last eight years in which Asian oysters being grown by Virginians "escaped" -- most recently last December. The bivalves in those mishaps were spilled into the water when bags or cages that contained them broke open -- in a couple cases entire containers turned up missing.
The Virginia commission is to decide the issue in April -- about the same time the two bay states and the Army are to finalize an Environmental Impact Statement on the future course of oyster restoration in the bay.
Seafood businesses and watermen in both states favor using the Asian oysters, because they grow faster and are resistant to the diseases that have decimated native oysters. Environmentalists and many scientists contend a non-native is too risky, and urge focusing on native oyster restoration.
I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.
