Half a Million for 10 Acres?

Chesapeake Bay Mag, $500K Grant Will Put 10 Acres of Oysters into Bustling Hampton River

Oyster restoration projects are becoming common in the Chesapeake Bay. However, a new restoration reef planned for the Hampton River is exciting, because it takes place in a busy commercialized waterway with a rich seafood history. The river used to contain one of the largest oyster shucking facilities in the Bay. Today, the waterway is considered impaired, so it will benefit greatly from the water filtering ability of the millions of oysters that are set to arrive.

Nearly $500,000 in grant funds from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) gets the ball rolling on restoration reef areas, with important work from a local Historically Black University and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
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Restoration reefs will be placed over several acres of river bottom. The reefs consist of a crushed stone base topped by a layer of “spat on shell” oysters. Spat on shell are baby oysters attached to recycled oyster shells. This arrangement gives the reef a jump start by placing live oysters on the reef from the onset. Once planted, oysters grow quickly. In a few years the oysters will be grown and reproducing on their own. The spat on shell will be produced by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s (CBF) mobile oyster restoration center, which is a vessel that will be docked in the river for community engagement.

I don't know for sure, but I would guess that fully harvesting a 10 acre patch of mature oysters would yield far less than $500,000.

CBF has also involved Hampton University in the project. HU is ideally located at the mouth of the river. According to Jackie Shannon, Virginia Oyster Restoration Manager for CBF, “We have worked with HU since 2016 to conduct research on existing oyster populations. We will continue to collect data and develop monitoring plans throughout the grant and beyond.”

Preliminary examination of the river has revealed several locations that will be good sites for raising oysters. Locations with firm bottoms work well. One location, identified as H (see map), is in the river just south of the Interstate 64 crossing. It is the largest potential reef in the river at 4.3 acres. Other identified locations are smaller, from .64 to 1.35 acres In total, plan to restore close to 10-acres of bottom.

One thing I looked for in the article was whether or not these areas were, or could be made, off limits to oyster fishing. I didn't see it. If this were in Maryland, watermen would go in and fish out these areas as soon as the oysters reached commercial size, if they were not off limits, and they might even if they were. I don't know how bad the poaching problem is in Virginia. This article, Here's why the oyster reefs in Hampton Roads need protection, suggests to me that they are not protected.