As oyster populations surge, Virginia could harvest more than 300,000 bushels of oysters from the Chesapeake Bay this season for the first time since the late 1980s.
At that time, severe restrictions were put in place to combat populations decimated by overharvesting, disease and consumption by predators.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission recently extended the oyster harvesting season by 10 days, in certain portions of the Chesapeake Bay — the James and Rappahannock rivers — while also ending this year’s harvest in an isolated area of the Rappahannock.
The extension was requested by commercial oyster harvesters.
The improvement of populations over the years can be attributed to a variety of factors, including planting oyster shells in waterways, which baby oysters can attach to, and turn into spat. In addition, natural selection resulted in stronger oysters after weaker ones were wiped out by diseases.
According to a recent VMRC staff memo, “The Virginia Oyster Resource is currently in the best condition it has been in a generation.”
The commission went along with the staff recommendation of extending the harvesting season by 10 days: “If these changes are adopted, it is likely that the harvest of public oysters will top 300,000 bushels for the first time since the 1987-88 season. It should be noted that after the 1987-88 season, the oyster fishery crashed, and public harvest did not exceed 200,000 bushels for 25 years and is only recently beginning to show signs of sustained recovery.”
While oyster reproduction has increased, a recent ‘State of the Bay‘ report from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation showed a decrease in blue crab numbers — their lowest level on record in the survey’s 33-year-history. Overall, according to the CBF report, the health of the Chesapeake Bay remains unchanged from a D+ in 2020 and 2018.
