Monday, November 7, 2011

Major Oyster Die Off in Upper Bay

Ever since commercial oystering seasons opened on Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, reports have been pouring in that most of the oyster bars north of the Bay Bridge are covered in dead oysters.

Department of Natural Resources teams are sampling the bars to figure out what happened, agency spokesman Josh Davidsburg said.

"There's nothing conclusive right now," he said.

The DNR could have some preliminary answers later this week, he added.

Though there are a few possible explanations for the die-off - too little oxygen, too much sediment, wrong amount of salt in the water - watermen are pointing to Mother Nature's wrath during Tropical Storm Lee in early September.
I would guess the watermen are basically right, that Tropical Storm Lee produced very low salinity values, and fueled algae blooms that lead to low oxygen levels (especially at night), and covered oysters with silt, and made it difficult for them to feed and respire all made life difficult for oysters in the upper bay this summer.  These things are not only not mutually exclusive, they are mutually reinforcing.

We had oyster experiments below the Bay Bridge in the Severn River that we basically had to cancel because the conditions were not conducive to oyster growth.

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