Oysters

Secretary Ronald Franks
Department of Natural Resources
Tawes State Office Building
580 Taylor Avenue
Annapolis, MD 21617

Dear Secretary Franks,

Coastal Conservation Association Maryland supports the goal of restoring the native oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay. Almost everyone believes that a restored native oyster population will result in some level of improvement in the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The excessive mortality of our native oyster stock and expanding degradation of its essential habitat has prevented that long-sought restoration.

The Department of Natural Resouces’ unwavering commitment to maintain the commercial exploitation of our native oysters has contributed to the economic extinction (see attachment 1 & 2) of the very industry you are trying to protect. CCA MD believes with the current degraded condition of our native oyster it is unreasonable to expect the goal of a restored oyster population to be mutually compatible with that of a sustainable oyster fishery.

No segment of oyster management has been immune from the effects of this continued support. Even the efforts to establish oyster sanctuaries have been the unwilling victim of this unseen action. The location of sanctuaries required the unwritten approval of the commercial oyster industry. This has caused most sanctuaries in the past to be placed in less-desirable locations resulting in less than optimum results or total failures.

Even the “put and take” commercial oyster fishery, known as the repletion program, is listed as a restoration effort by the State. This failed program has required the expenditure of millions of dollars for the destruction of essential fish habitat to obtain a shrinking finite supply of fossil oyster shell, which needs to be continually replaced. The repletion program provides very limited and short-term subsidy benefits to a few commercial oystermen with expenditures far in excess of revenue returned to the state, with no long-term improvement in the condition of the oyster stocks.

Your promise of an open and inclusive process within DNR has been ignored when it comes to oysters. The citizens of Maryland must be provided the opportunity to participate in the decision making process of oyster management that is now considered an exclusive right by a few special interests groups. Maryland’s “oyster cartel” (government and private entities placed in positions of influence over the management of oysters) has supported the policy that the commercial oyster fishery must be maintained, regardless.

With the blessing of the oyster cartel, management continues to expend tax dollars in their unsuccessful attempts to find a restoration strategy that does not restrict the ongoing commercial exploitation of this invaluable ecological engineer. While most citizens support the continuing effort to restore the native oyster for its ecological value, CCA MD along with many citizens can no longer accept the wasteful, failed management strategies being promoted in the name of restoration, but in reality are vehicles for more aggressive commercial exploitation.

As native oysters continue their long downtrend toward extinction the managers are seeking to expand power dredging, a very efficient harvest method that flattened the once bountiful three-dimensional oyster reefs that filtered the Bay. The last phase of an endangered fishery is characterized by scarcity of the resource and an insistence by fishermen that they need to employ more efficient gear in order to take the resource economically. While a brief increase of harvest may occur, due in part to greater efficiency, the final stage for collapse is set.

All the hallmarks of a fishery on the verge of collapse are present in the case of the native Chesapeake Bay oyster: low historical populations, inability of the resource to recover despite human efforts to assist recovery, and the need to use more efficient gear to make the economics of the industry viable. CCA MD can wait no longer for others to speak out for the resource. The remaining native oysters are much too valuable to the future of the Bay to be exploited for human consumption during this time of crisis. Their greatest value is to be found in their ecological role as filtering organisms that help stabilize the bay ecosystem to the benefit of all Marylanders. The longer each oyster remains in the Bay the greater its contribution to a cleaner environment.

Maryland has been faced with similar situations to that of the oyster, with striped bass and Canada geese. Their stocks were depleted to a point where it was feared, with additional declines, they would not be able to sustain themselves. Moratoriums were put in place with resulting recoveries. While CCA MD is unable to predict the outcome, we must recommit ourselves to oyster restoration for restoration’s sake. CCA MD requests that you implement an untried option available to the citizens of Maryland; establish a moratorium on the harvest of our native oyster, C. virginica.

Coastal Conservation Association Maryland petitions the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources to list the Maryland oyster as endangered or threatened under Maryland’s Endangered Species of Fish Conservation Act; 4-2A-04, and declare a moratorium on the catching, sale, or possession of the native Chesapeake Bay oyster, C. virginica before the start of the 2005 – 2006 oyster season.

Any of the following factors can be considered sufficient for the Secretary to declare, by rule or regulation, oysters as endangered or threatened:
1. The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range;
2. Over-utilization for commercial, sporting, scientific, educational, or other purposes;
3. Disease or predation;
4. The inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or
5. Other natural or manmade factors affecting the continued existence within the State.

This action should protect all future recovery efforts and must remain in place until field tests indicate that oysters are abundant enough to be self-sustainable. The moratorium should continue until sufficient biomass exists on each NOAA code harvest reporting area to allow a controlled harvest based on biological reference points, established by a peer-reviewed oyster fishery management plan.

CCA MD is confident that when the Secretary reviews the current scientific data relating to the above criteria he will conclude that C. virginica is endangered or threatened, and will institute a moratorium. CCA MD looks forward to your expedient decision and the opportunity to replace the philosophy of short-term economic gain with the importance of the ecological role of live, prolific Chesapeake Bay oyster populations that benefit all of Maryland’s citizens.

Respectfully,
Donald W. Silliman, Chairman
Coastal Conservation Association Maryland

Attachment # 1 – US Atlantic Oyster Landings (PDF)
Attachment # 2 – Chesapeake Bay Oyster Landings (PDF)