Army Issues Orders for New Bay Oyster Plan

Army Corps unveiling Chesapeake oyster plan

The Army Corps of Engineers unveiled its restoration plan for Chesapeake oysters on Tuesday, a bay-wide look that officials said moves past piecemeal efforts and selects targets for large-scale efforts.
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The plan selected 19 areas, 11 in Maryland and eight in Virginia, for restoration. Those waterways include the Eastern Bay, Tangier Sound and the Nanticoke, Choptank and Chester rivers in Maryland. The Pocomoke, Rappahannock and James rivers are among the areas in Virginia.

The plan also calls for sanctuaries where harvesting won't be allowed covering 20 percent to 40 percent of historic habitat.

Good.  That's a start.  I think there should be a complete moratorium on "wild" oyster harvesting in the Bay for at least 5 years, maybe even 10, to see if there is any hope of the native oyster recolonizing old ground without extensive re-creation of habitat, which is what will cost the big bucks:

Another reason for the study is to put a cost estimate on that goal, O'Neill said. The study found costs could run as high as $7.85 billion, compared to the $5 million a year the effort is now getting from Congress.

8 billion bucks for oysters in Chesapeake Bay?  Yeah, that'll happen...

An old friend of mine showed up at one of the public meetings to make his feelings known:

About a dozen showed up for the first meeting, including Ken Hastings, 71, a retired communications engineer who drove 90 minutes from Mechanicsville.  Hastings said he supports the emphasis on sanctuaries and would support a moratorium on oystering.

"I'm not against harvesting, just not having harvests until it's sustainable," Hastings said.

Amen, Ken.