Asian or native? Bay oyster project awaits decision

Environment Military News Virginia

By Scott Harper
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 8, 2009
NORFOLK

Col. Dionysios Anninos - Dan, to friends - has a big decision to make before he leaves this spring for a third tour of duty in Iraq.

The head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for much of Virginia, based in Norfolk, must announce and then launch with state partners a grand strategy for restoring oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.

Time is running out. Few of the famed bivalves are left, despite 15 years and $45 million worth of government attempts to create a comeback. Efforts to date, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "have met with considerable disappointment."

Anninos, with his degrees in mathematics and engineering, hopes to broker a deal within weeks, though he admitted during a recent interview to being stuck on several pieces of this high-profile puzzle.

On whether to allow an exotic, Asian oyster into the Bay as a way to jump-start a recovery, Anninos smiled, then shrugged.

"Well, the science did not say it was bad for the Bay," he said, "and did not say it was good for the Bay, either."

On whether the native Eastern oyster can ever fully return within a Bay suffering from diseases, pollution and 16 million people on its shores, Anninos again shrugged.

"I'm not sure we can bring back a native population Baywide," he said. "Now, we can have pockets of success," he added, mentioning the way oysters seem to be returning to the Lynnhaven River in Virginia Beach. "But Baywide? I'm not convinced that's possible."

The Norfolk district of the corps oversaw a five-year, $15 million study of oyster recovery that was supposed to provide definitive answers for policy-makers. It did not.

The huge document, called a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, was released in November but did not recommend a strategy. Instead, the corps asked for public comment on possible paths forward.

A decision is expected soon, with adoption of a plan in May or June - about the time Anninos leaves for Iraq. There, he will take part in corps efforts to help rebuild the country.

More than 2,000 people wrote the corps about oysters. Comments came from scientists, environmentalists, regulators, state officials from Maine to Texas, students, watermen and seafood merchants.

A clear majority favor a strategy excluding the Asian oyster, even in controlled experiments. They argue that the species from China and Korea is risky and could spark a new type of disease in the Bay.

They instead want the government to focus entirely on the native oyster, pushing for a public-private program costing more than $500 million over the next 10 years. It would include building hundreds of artificial reefs in Virginia and Maryland waters, opening more hatcheries and encouraging more oyster farming.

"While restoration faces many challenges, enhanced and more strategic investments in our native Chesapeake oyster hold the best promise for rejuvenating the Bay's oyster population, all without the risks associated with a non-native," wrote leaders of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and The Nature Conservancy.

Two local environmental groups, Lynnhaven River Now and the Elizabeth River Project, support this view. So do the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which used to support controlled experiments with Asian oysters, now opposes the foreign species.

Similarly, states from Maine to Florida sent letters against the imports, also called aria-kensis or the Suminoe oyster. They said they fear that the foreign species could drift into their waters and damage their native stocks. They noted the way Japanese oysters spawned a herpes-like disease in France in the past two years, wiping out native clam stocks in some waters. And the way an exotic oyster, also from Japan, is at least partially to blame for bringing disease to the Bay in the first place, in the 1950s.

However, letters from Bay oystermen and the Virginia Seafood Council, which has grown and sold sterile Asian oysters in the Bay since 2000, stressed that these critics miss one key point:

Native oysters continue to die in droves - up to 90 percent of them - in the face of two devastating diseases, MSX and Dermo. Suminoe does not.

Therefore, they argue, if plentiful stocks of wild oysters ever are to exist in the Bay again, they likely will be Asians - regardless of how much money is thrown at native-oyster recovery.

"The biggest uphill battle in restoring the Eastern oyster is disease, and the non-native oyster is very resilient to this problem," wrote Jimmy Kline, with the Maryland Oystermen's Association.

Also, Suminoe oysters are powerful filters of sediments, nutrients and algae in the Bay, these proponents said. Even when grown in cages and under tight security, they benefit the environment and the economy.

Environmental groups often argue that the Asian species will push out native oysters and take over the Bay.

Asked about this, Anninos shook his head no. "There is no proof they would compete with natives," he said.

Over coffee, Anninos said federal regulators have indicated to him that they want "a zero-risk option" in the Bay - meaning, no Asians. The EPA, he said, could veto any proposal to include Suminoe experiments, thus forcing the matter to top administrators in Washington or to the courts.

Anninos also talked about recent calculations - actually, mathematical corrections to government models - showing that "once you start with the Asian oyster, even with limited farming, you can't go back."

He explained that scientists now believe that even sterilized Asians will likely morph in the Bay, and some eventually will spawn.

Anninos said he wants "a consensus document" among partners in Virginia and Maryland. But that is proving to be difficult, he said. Virginia still favors a limited, tightly controlled growth of Asian oysters, while Maryland does not. Officials in both states said this week that they continue to evaluate their options but have not decided on a preferred option. Both thanked Anninos for leading what they called "a collegial process."

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com.