Eastern Shore gets $2M grant to revive the Bay scallop

The Obama administration announced a $2 million grant Tuesday for a major environmental project on Virginia's Eastern Shore, intended to create 24 acres of oyster reefs and 100 acres of sea grass beds, as well as to revive a nearly vanquished seafood species - the bay scallop.

The money is part of $167 million in stimulus funds for 50 habitat restoration projects across the United States, including $5 million to rebuild 49 acres of oyster reefs in estuaries in North Carolina.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the grants Tuesday morning from a pool of 814 proposals. The Eastern Shore project was the only one approved in Virginia.

State officials, scientists, environmentalists and politicians were elated, saying the project would create as many as 55 jobs over 18 months and involve eight coastal bays on the Eastern Shore, from Wachapreague Inlet south to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

"This investment of economic recovery funds will yield economic benefits for years to come for the watermen and seaside communities around the Chesapeake Bay," U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-V a., said in a statement.

The project builds on the success of restoring underwater grasses in the many seaside bays among a maze of barrier islands on the Eastern Shore. The lush green beds once dominated the bottom landscapes of these bays, breathing oxygen into the water column, filtering pollutants and harboring crabs, fish, oysters, clams and, of course, bay scallops.

Disease and a hurricane nearly wiped out the grasses in the 1930s. While scientists have brought back some of the plants, the bay scallops never returned.

Under the project, about 2.4 million adult and baby scallops will be released onto existing grass beds, mostly in South Bay, near the town of Oyster, said Bob Orth, an aquatic plants expert and researcher at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Bay scallops - slightly smaller and slightly sweeter-tasting than their cousins, sea scallops - are being grown in a VIMS hatchery now and could be deployed this fall, said Barry Truitt, chief biologist on the Eastern Shore for The Nature Conservancy, an environmental group.

The scallops will be off-limits to fishermen at first, Truitt said, but over time, the quarter-sized mollusks could spread to other beds in other bays and jump-start a scallop industry.

"It's exciting, but it's also scary," Truitt said from his office Tuesday. The funding also will pay for the planting of 100 acres of eel grass beds, mostly in Spider Crab Bay but also in Hog Island Bay.

Oyster reefs will be constructed out of old oyster shells by local contractors in other waters, including Burton Bay, Bradford Bay, Swash Bay, Ramshorn Bay, Mockhorn Bay and Magothy Bay.

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