Editorial: The bay is still safe for native oysters

It's bad enough the toys my kids play with are cheap products made in China that may or may not contain lead. What could have been worse, however, is that some day the oysters I shuck and eat raw with a cold beer could come from the same place — unleaded, hopefully. The chances of that happening became less likely this week when federal officials ended the possibility of planting Asian oysters in the Chesapeake Bay as a means of reviving the estuary's depleted stock of its world famous bivalves.

It took five years and $17 million, but the Army Corps of Engineers decided the risks of introducing the Asian oyster into the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem would be too much of a risk to our native oyster — Crassostrea virginica. I've said time and again that a Nobel Prize awaits the person who can figure out a way to restore the bay's oyster population. But replacing our unique species with something from the Far East ain't it. I thank the Corps of Engineers for playing, please pick up some Turtle Wax and other fine parting gifts on your way out the door.

Most scientists agree the Chesapeake Bay oyster population is about 1 percent of what it was a half century ago when dredging and tonging oysters fed the world's appetite and helped watermen make a living during the cold winter months. The decline began in the mid-1980s and while some try to point to overfishing and pollution as the culprits, it's just not that simple. The bay's watermen population declined with the oysters and unlike crabs and striped bass, oysters thrive in less than desirable conditions. Lynnhaven Inlet near Norfolk is far from pure, but oysters are growing naturally on dock pilings. The parasites dermo and MSX, which have no effect on humans, wreaked havoc on oyster shores in Maryland and Virginia. The decline was quick and decisive. Young oysters were plentiful, but they would open up and die just prior to reaching market size.

Efforts to find disease resistant native oysters have sputtered and a coalition of state and federal officials attempted to bring in Asian oysters as an alternative. This raised the stakes quite a bit. The Asian oyster displayed a resistance to dermo and MSX and even grew faster than the Virginia oyster. Introducing the Asian oyster, however, would have been the equivalent to selling the Chesapeake Bay's soul for a quick payoff. Scientists, bay activists and even watermen warned that the Asian oyster would win out in the battle of natural selection with the Virginia species. We would be reviving the bay's oyster population by sacrificing the very species that made the Chesapeake famous. For now, I'm just glad the Corp of Engineers decided to give up on the Asian oysters. We already have the northern snakehead on the prowl in the Potomac. We certainly don't need the bivalve equivalent taking over our oyster shores on the Chesapeake Bay.

Alfred Biddlecomb is the former editorial page editor for the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger. Stafford County Sun editorials represent the opinion of the managing editor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily the Stafford County Sun.