NOAA and Partners Launch Project to Restore Native Oysters in the Great Wicomico River
On March 10, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office took part in launching a project that will seed 15 million disease-tolerant broodstock native oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in the Great Wicomico River. Over-harvesting, degraded water quality and disease have reduced the population of the Bay’s native oyster by more than 99 percent.
The Great Wicomico project is the first large-scale restoration of an estuarine system as a single unit to “kick start” sustained levels of natural recruitment; it represents one facet of a new and concerted effort to reverse the damage. Encouraging results from the Great Wicomico project might lead to similar efforts in other areas in the Chesapeake Bay.
This project is the result of more than a decade of research on native oyster restoration by partners including NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For more information, please contact Pa************@no**.gov.
NOAA and Partners Launch Project to Restore Native Oysters in the Great Wicomico River
On March 10, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office took part in launching a project that will seed 15 million disease-tolerant broodstock native oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in the Great Wicomico River. Over-harvesting, degraded water quality and disease have reduced the population of the Bay’s native oyster by more than 99 percent.
The Great Wicomico project is the first large-scale restoration of an estuarine system as a single unit to “kick start” sustained levels of natural recruitment; it represents one facet of a new and concerted effort to reverse the damage. Encouraging results from the Great Wicomico project might lead to similar efforts in other areas in the Chesapeake Bay.
This project is the result of more than a decade of research on native oyster restoration by partners including NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For more information, please contact Pa************@no**.gov.