At one time, oysters were so abundant in the Chesapeake Bay that their reefs posed navigational hazards to ships sailing up the Bay. Now, because of disease, poor water quality, and decades of overharvest, the oyster population in the Bay is at about 1% of what it once was. Federal and state agencies, industry, academic institutions, and nonprofit groups have all been working hard to restore the native oyster population to levels that will once again provide significant ecological and economic services.

Please see our oyster science pages for more information about the biology of the eastern oyster and how disease is affecting its population in the Bay.

What Is NOAA Doing About the Decline in Oysters?

NOAA is one of the primary federal agencies involved in oyster restoration in the Chesapeake Bay. The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO) is working with federal, state, and local partners in Maryland and Virginia to implement large-scale restoration and to support research that will help us understand how to better manage around the diseases that plague the oyster today. Various oyster restoration and management techniques, including sanctuaries, managed reserves, and genetic rehabilitation, are being used in different parts of the Bay. Due to shortages of oyster shell for restoration projects, various alternative substrates are also being considered.

NOAA’s financial and technical support of oyster restoration in the Chesapeake Bay has grown from one project in 1995 to more than 24 in 2004. Initial efforts were primarily small-scale demonstration projects funded under the NOAA Restoration Center’s Community- Based Restoration Program. The goal of these projects was to restore oyster populations while fostering citizen involvement in the oyster recovery effort.

As a result of some encouraging early results from these initial projects, large-scale funding for oyster restoration in Maryland started in 1999 through a cooperative agreement with the Oyster Recovery Partnership. These funds primarily were used to address capacity limitations such as shell handling, hatchery issues, and other restoration infrastructure needs, but were also used for on-the-ground projects in both low- and high-salinity areas. Results of these projects were mixed, with some sites having high survival rates and showing long-term persistence, and other sites succumbing to elevated disease pressures that occurred as a result of higher salinities during the 2002 drought year.

Beginning in 2002, NCBO expanded its funding to include restoration activities in Virginia through a cooperative agreement with the Virginia Oyster Reef Heritage Foundation, as well as continuing with work in Maryland. While funding in Maryland was used for hatchery production of spat-on-shell for sites restored with other non-NOAA funds, the funding for Virginia was principally used to purchase and place dredged-shell (2002) or shuck-house shell (2003) on restoration sites in a number of tributaries, most notably the lower Rappahannock River.

From 2004 to present, NCBO’s oyster restoration funds have been more consistently focused in each state. Maryland continues to address hatchery spat-on-shell production capacity issues and upgrades, as well as the placement of annual hatchery production—in some years approaching 200 million spat-on-shell. Meanwhile in Virginia, NCBO funds have supported extensive evaluation, survey, and initial monitoring efforts of an expanded partnership project, which now includes the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk District, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Current efforts are focusing on the Great Wicomico River, with plans to move into the Lynnhaven River.

NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office funding for native oyster restoration is shown below:

1997	1998	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
$26K	$26K	$220K	$1.02M	$1.03M	$1.06M	$2.13M	$1.97M	$4.08M	$4.0M	$5.7M	$2.9M

Mapping

NOAA, the Oyster Recovery Partnership, and the Maryland Geological Survey use sonar technology to map oyster bars in the Chesapeake Bay. The maps provide visual evidence of the condition of the bars, noting the actual size and location of bars, how much of the bar is exposed to the water, and general bar shape and structure. Knowing where the best areas for oyster habitat are or once were is a valuable tool for restoration. Information about the Bay’s bottom will prove invaluable for many other habitat and fisheries restoration activities as well.

Partners

NOAA also supports oyster research and restoration through several other programs and partnerships. Please see the links below for more information.

Community-Based Habitat Restoration Program

NOAA Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management

National Sea Grant Program

Oxford Cooperative Laboratory

Native Oyster Restoration Monitoring Program (NORM)

Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP)

Chesapeake Bay Oyster Population Estimation Program (CBOPE)