Chesapeake Bay on track to beat oyster restoration goal before end of year

The Chesapeake Bay Program has announced they’re on track to exceed their goal of fully restoring the oyster habitats to 10 tributaries across Maryland and Virginia before the end of the year.

Officials are gearing up to plant the final few acres of oyster reef in the Manokin River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Over 2,200 acres of habitat will have been restored by the project’s completion, it’s considered the largest oyster restoration initiative in the world.

Several tributaries have already been fully restored in Maryland include Harris Creek, the Little Choptank, Tred Avon and St. Mary’s rivers. In Virginia the Lafayette, Piankatank, Great Wicomico, Lynnhaven, Lower York and Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth rivers — which brings the total number to 11 rivers restored, exceeding the initial goal of 10.

The restoration goal was first included in the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement — the joint federal and state plan to restore the Bay.

Cited by their ability to naturally filter water and provide habitat for hundreds of other species – oysters are considered the bedrock of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. But disease, overfishing and water quality degradation have decreased the population, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

One main way officials got those numbers up was by introducing new oysters to the mix. Under the SOAR, or the Supporting Oyster Aquaculture Restoration program, bushels of oysters not suited for market were sold and dumped back into tributaries with lower oyster populations.