Seafood group seeks OK to grow Asian oysters

By Scott Harper
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 25, 2009

NEWPORT NEWS

The Virginia Seafood Council asked the state for permission Tuesday to grow 1.1 million Asian oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Eastern Shore over the next year, the latest and largest experiment to date with the exotic shellfish species.

The timing of the request is dicey. It comes as Virginia, Maryland and the Army Corps of Engineers are preparing to announce a larger strategy for restoring oysters in the Bay - a strategy that many environmentalists and scientists say should exclude Asian strains.

Groups including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and The Nature Conservancy, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, all argue that the Asian species is too risky and could doom efforts to revive native oyster stocks.

They asked the Virginia Marine Resources Commission on Tuesday to deny the latest application for field experiments with the Asian animal, also known as ariakensis or the Suminoe oyster.

"The use of the native oyster, C. virginica, is the only reasonable and responsible choice for restoring the economic and ecological role of oysters in the Bay," wrote Leopoldo Miranda, supervisor of the Chesapeake Bay Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other critics have supported past experiments. But not this time, arguing that government and industry should focus their energies and money on the native oyster alone.

Frances Porter, executive director of the Virginia Seafood Council, said the Newport News-based trade group has had great success with the Asian oyster in seven years of experiments in the Bay, and that no diseases or unexpected reproduction has occurred.

"There is no scientific evidence proving risk," Porter told the commission.

She said the foreign species, originally from China and Korea, grows faster in the Bay than natives, tastes similar and does not die in the face of two parasites that have nearly wiped out native oysters.

Tommy Mason, who has raised and sold oysters for 42 years in Chincoteague on the Eastern Shore, including the past several years using the Suminoe, said to block experiments now would make no sense.

The proposal would allow 11 different growers to each plant 100,000 sterile Asian oysters in protective cages and bags at 11 sites around the Bay and along the seaside of the Eastern Shore.

The growers would pay for the experiment and be required to monitor the oysters and remove them from the water in case of an emergency, such as a hurricane. The field trials would end on June 1, 2010.

Steve Bowman, head of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said he will decide by April 27 whether to grant a permit. A federal permit also is required from the Army Corps of Engineers in Norfolk.

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

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Everything has a substitute

Submitted by Gigot22 on Thu, 03/26/2009 at 6:20 pm.

I struggled for years to keep grass in my back yard. Someone finally recommended kudzu. How effortless it became to have a green, lush backyard. I haven't had to look at the neighboring houses for years!

The need to ask for and much

Submitted by HarveyMilk on Wed, 02/25/2009 at 9:58 am.

The need to ask for and much more so to approve such a request is and would be, in effect, a bold admission of failure by the very people who claim to be protecting and restoring the Bay since, had they been successful the native species would now or soon be thriving. Oh well. Zebra mussels are, by the way, quite tasty and, though somewhat small, can be used in any recipe calling for mussels. Bon Appetite.

Let em both grow

Submitted by Donkeyottie on Wed, 02/25/2009 at 9:07 am.

The Asian oyster or the Suminoe oyster is not some strange foreign unknown. It is the very same oyster that has been growing in the Chesapeake Bay for the past several years on a trial basis, without incident. Proponents of the native oyster only want to talk about their success in the Lynhaven River, but don't want to talk about their failures in almost every other location.