Seafood Industry Group Abandons Asian Oyster Trials

The tide may have turned for the Asian oyster.
 
A seafood industry organization called the Virginia Seafood Council that has been testing the cultivation of non-native oysters in Chesapeake Bay tributaries announced yesterday that the group is abandoning the effort, the Newport News Daily Press is reporting. 

For the last eight years, the seafood group has been raising Asian oysters that are mostly sterile in underwater farms. But scientists, advocates and many Bay area residents have expressed concerns that some will reproduce and proliferate to crowd out the remaining native Chesapeake oysters and perhaps introduce exotic parasites.

Yesterday, the Seafood Council had been expected to testify before a hearing of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission in Newport News, Virginia, to ask for permission to introduce 1.1 million more Asian oysters into the Chesapeake Bay starting in June.

But instead, the organization’s executive director, Frances Porter, withdrew the application. "Unless someone else in the state has the political will to do it, we're finished," said Frances W. Porter, the council's executive director.

Bay Daily hopes the decision will mean that Virginia will halt its efforts to allow a non-native species into the Bay.  Exotic species often bring unexpected consequences that wreak havoc in natural ecosystems. For example, the oyster-killing parasite MSX, which has played a role in the devastation of native Chesapeake oysters, is thought to have been introduced into the Bay during an effort last century to introduce a different species of Asian oyster into the estuary.

A better plan is to throw more effort into the cultivation of native Chesapeake oysters. Recent efforts to raise local Virginica oysters have shown promise that some are developing resistance to diseases that have hobbled the industry.
 
Virginia still has not officially announced its decision on whether it supports introduction of non-native oysters into the Bay. Maryland is opposed to the introduction of the exotic species. And The Baltimore Sun recently reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official who is overseeing the deliberation over the proposed introduction is in favor of allowing continued trials with small batches of Asian oysters in the Bay. 

Now, the Army Corps should change direction and say no to the Asian oyster.
 
Tommy Leggett, CBF’s Oyster Restoration Scientist who raises native oysters in the York River in Virginia, praised the Virginia Seafood Council's decision that more trials with exotic oysters are not the way to go.
 
“I think it’s a wise decision,” Leggett said this morning. “We are pleased to be looking forward to working with the seafood council and the oyster  industry to ensure that the oyster industry can be restored around the native oyster.”