While the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO) does not have regulatory authority over the state waters where oysters live in the Bay, NCBO does support oyster restoration and research through cooperative agreements with its two primary partners: the Oyster Recovery Partnership in Maryland and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary. Please see our restoration pages for more information about these and other NOAA-supported oyster restoration efforts.

The Chesapeake 2000 Agreement set the goal of achieving a ten-fold increase over 1994 numbers of oysters in the Bay by 2010. The states of Maryland and Virginia have independently managed their oyster fisheries and restoration efforts for decades.

In 2004 the Comprehensive Oyster Management Plan was drafted collaboratively by state, federal, academic, industry, and nongovernmental groups to thoroughly address the issues facing oyster restoration in the Bay, and to better coordinate efforts to reach the 2010 goal. The plan tackles the biggest obstacles to oyster restoration in the Chesapeake Bay: disease, loss of habitat, and a low remaining stock of oysters, and also lays out strategies for ways to address these issues including habitat restoration, increased use of aquaculture, and improved management and monitoring.

For more information please see the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Comprehensive Oyster Management Plan page or their publications site for a downloadable .pdf file of the plan.

As one of the partners in the oyster restoration effort, the Army Corps of Engineers has outlined a long-term plan for spending funds they have allocated for implementing oyster restoration in Virginia. Their approach focuses on using disease-resistant strains of oysters to seed reefs in the Great Wicomico, Lynnhaven, Elizabeth, and James Rivers—a restoration practice known as “genetic rehabilitation.” These particular tributaries were chosen because their existing habitat, size, hydrology, and salinity regimes are favorable for oyster restoration.

In addition, a large-scale restoration project is planned for the James River. All of the Corps' restoration sites will be declared sanctuaries, and although harvest will not be allowed, it is hoped that the larvae produced by these oysters will seed beds in other areas, enhancing those oyster populations as well. The Corps is drafting a similar plan for Maryland.