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		Nature Conservancy Magazine: Winter 2006 Nature Conservancy Magazine Restoration Takes Flight Up Close Minding the Gap Potomac BioBlitz Nature Stories Podcast Nature Landmarks Nature Books Nature Travel Nature Preserves Subscribe Previous Issues

Turning the Tide on Shellfish Decline

CBF volunteers and crew transplanting live oysters onto artificial oyster reef created with old oyster shells at mouth of the Piankatank River, Virginia. © HalBrindley.com   View a slideshow of the restoration work in Virginia.  © HalBrindley.com Learn more Chesapeake Bay Foundation The Conservancy in Delaware The Conservancy in Maryland The Conservancy in Virginia New York's shellfish restoration work in Great South Bay

Restoration Lessons in the Chesapeake Bay

by Jennifer Uscher

Native oyster reefs, which provide an underwater haven for dozens of species of plants and animals and help clean water and stabilize shorelines, have largely disappeared from U.S. coasts. This is especially true in the Chesapeake Bay, which has lost most of its 400,000 acres of reefs in the past two centuries.

In 2006 a team of Nature Conservancy scientists began working with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to reverse the decline. In April and May, researchers deposited 750,000 farm-raised oysters onto a reconstructed shell reef in Virginia’s Piankatank River.

The Conservancy is literally helping to write the book on reviving long-lost shellfish beds: With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Conservancy is sharing lessons learned through a recently published guide. “We’re carefully testing strategies that could be applied and expanded upon elsewhere in the Chesapeake and at our oyster-restoration sites in other states,” says Rob Brumbaugh, head of the Conservancy’s Shellfish Restoration Network.

The restoration effort in the Chesapeake provided at least one lesson: Within days of depositing the oysters, the researchers discovered that most oysters were eaten by cow-nosed rays, which arrived in the bay earlier and in greater numbers than in previous years.

The scientists went back to the drawing board and by September the Bay Foundation had grown and transplanted more than 2 million additional oysters to the reef. This time, however, they dumped oyster half shells (gathered from a shucking plant that shells farm-raised oysters) in with the oyster larvae. The young oysters attach to the large shells, which is expected to help camouflage and protect them from predators.

So far, the rays haven’t returned to munch on the new batch of oysters. But you never know, says Mark Bryer, director of the Conservancy’s Chesapeake Bay Initiative. “We’re learning that restoring shellfish is full of nuances that have huge implications for success.”