According to various reports, three watermen visited with Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford just before Christmas, provided him with data that was mathematically erroneous, and as a result the State, without conferring with any other stakeholders, shut down the federally funded efforts of the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to restore oysters in designated sanctuaries in the Tred Avon and Little Choptank Rivers.
Just this past September state and federal officials, along with numerous stakeholder groups, celebrated a major milestone in the life of the Chesapeake Bay—the completion of the largest oyster restoration project ever in nearby Harris Creek. At 350 acres, the Harris Creek reef is bigger than the National Mall and has been seeded with more than 2 billion oysters. The oysters were bred at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Hatchery, where they were selected for their resistance to dermo (Perkinsus marinus) and MSX (Haplosporidium nelson), two diseases that decimated oyster populations in past decades.
By most accounts, excepting those of local watermen who have been fighting oyster sanctuary development from early on, the initial results from this effort are promising. According to a Bay Journal report, Angie Sowers, a Corps water resources specialist involved in planning the oyster restoration work, said there are “clear signs of improvement” in the creek’s oyster community since the restoration work began. “Where there were very few oysters, there are now densities of 25 or greater (per square meter).” The Journal report also quotes Peyton Robertson, director of the Chesapeake Bay office of NOAA, who says that though all the data are not in, he’s seen no evidence so far to support the watermen’s claims that the restoration is not working. Moreover, underwater video Robertson’s seen of the restored reefs shows oysters growing vertically off the reef, rather than laying flat, with other marine organisms growing on and around them and with fish swimming in the vicinity. Imagine, three-dimensional oyster reefs once again in our rivers!
Harris Creek was the first of five oyster sanctuaries that Maryland committed to build before 2025. Virginia has made a matching commitment. The next two Maryland sanctuaries are slated for the Tred Avon River and the Little Choptank. Most of the funds are coming from federal sources. Sixteen acres of reefs were built last year in the Tred Avon, and the Corps was preparing to award a contract to build another eight acres there this spring. This step has now been postponed, at least until state and federal officials meet and review their positions later this month. The Tred Avon’s restoration reefs are expected to cost $11.5 million.
Two of the watermen who met with Rutherford apparently claimed that the restoration efforts in the sanctuaries, which are off-limits to commercial harvest, are a failure and should be overhauled. Rob Newberry, head of the Delmarva Fisheries Association, and Bunky Chance, president of Talbot County watermen’s association, based their assertion in part on their comparison of the Harris Creek spat set and the nearby Broad Creek spat set. Newberry and Chance apparently told the Lieutenant Governor that the state’s annual survey of oyster reproduction, performed by state biologists, shows that an unrestored reef in nearby Broad Creek has more spat set than the rebuilt reefs in Harris Creek.
According to marine scientists, their arguments were based on incorrect math and irrelevant criteria. The Journal reports that Lisa Kellogg, a senior research scientist with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, requested the document that Chance and Newbury were using to make their claims and compared that data to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ 2014 fall oyster survey. Kellogg said the watermen made a math error and added spat per shell from two bushels instead of averaging them. Angie Sowers from the Corps points out that most of the oysters planted on Harris Creek are still too young to spawn, so it’s premature to judge their reproduction. Which would, of course, make the watermen’s argument irrelevant. Peyton Robertson points out that spat set is not the sole yardstick for determining the success of the restoration, but rather a “metric” of ecological functions. When looking at whether an oyster restoration site is successful, scientists look at the density of a reef, the year classes of oysters, the biodiversity the reef attracts and the oysters’ survival rate.
Bill Goldsborough, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s senior fisheries scientist who has been involved in the state’s oyster restoration efforts for more than two decades said that spat set information tells scientists little about the benefits of sanctuaries. “There are scientific metrics to determine whether oyster restoration is successful,” he said. “Comparing Harris Creek to Broad Creek is not one of the metrics.”
Both of Maryland’s U.S. Senators, Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski, have sent a letter to Baltimore Corps commander Col. Edward P. Chamberlayne, asking that they continue forward with the project and not delay it as the State has requested. They and other officials fear the delay could drag out and possibly derail the overall restoration effort. In their letter they warned the delay could undermine the restoration effort’s benefits and may jeopardize federal funding to carry it out.
Oysters, of course, are an iconic species in the Chesapeake Bay. They filter sediment and algae and absorb nitrogen from the water, while providing important nurseries and feeding grounds to rockfish, crabs and other marine life. They are less than 1% of historic populations. They are essential to bringing back healthy water in our rivers and Bay. They are essential for all of us, not just for our watermen.
As our senators point out in their letter, this largely federal project is a critical piece of and the next step in the state’s commitment to restore oyster populations in five Maryland waterways under the 2014 multi-state Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement with the federal government.
To quote: “We are concerned by the proposed delay for several reasons. Recognizing that work to rebuild oyster reefs in the Bay has to occur during seasonal windows, even a short delay in award of this contract could delay this reef restoration for more than a year, and delays on this one section of the Tred Avon work could delay the overall project and reduce its cumulative benefits. Given that the Maryland Congressional Delegation worked hard to secure these limited federal dollars at the request of the State, we fear the Corps and other federal agencies may lose use of funds for this critical work, or spend it in other states.”
As Peyton Robertson from NOAA questions, “If the resources are not needed here, or the state isn’t interested in applying them here, should we consider applying them elsewhere?”
Is this what Marylander’s want for our waterways? Make your voice heard.
David Lloyd says
The suspension here is criminal! Here I was so hoping that the Hogan administration would not follow the usual Republican footsteps in siding with industry against those depending upon renewable natural resources — like oysters! The presence of oysters is critical to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere. If people are so shortsighted, they shouldn’t be allowed to serve in office.