Rotation system pays off with bountiful oyster harvest

DELTAVILLE

Oyster season is under way in Virginia, and here at the mouth of the Rappahannock River, where it meets the open waters of the Chesapeake Bay, a strange sight appeared last week: dozens of work boats loaded with big, fat oysters.

The image of sunbaked watermen hauling up so many oysters was odd because for years now, few of the succulent bivalves could be found in the wild, the result of decades of pollution, ruined habitat and devastating diseases.

But oyster harvests have increased for three consecutive years in Virginia, the first time that has happened in a generation. That's due largely to a state policy that resembles one used by farmers who rotate their fields and rest their soil.

After dropping to nearly zero in 2006, oyster landings topped more than 393,000 pounds in 2009, the last year data were available. That harvest was worth about $3.3 million.

While still a far cry from historical catches, when millions of pounds were typically collected and sold to markets, state officials, watermen, seafood merchants and some conservationists are expressing hope.

"Last year was about the best I've seen it," said William Parks, a waterman from Tangier Island who has been oystering for 36 years. "The rotational system has helped, for sure. There's more oysters out there, and bigger ones, too."

Parks, covered with dried sweat but smiling, was at the docks of Kellum Seafood in Weems, on the north shore of the Rappahannock. He and other boat captains were waiting in a small cove to off-load their catches last Friday from a management area known as Block 1, just off Stingray Point.

The state opened the zone on Oct. 1 after leaving it fallow for the previous three years.

Block 1 will be closed on Nov. 30 and left that way for three years. A second block of reefs and public fishing grounds, just upstream, will be opened from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31.

Then it, too, will be closed for three years.

There are six such areas that are cycled in this way on the Rappahannock, a system that borrows from successes in rebuilding scallops off the Atlantic coast while also generating huge economic gains from their harvest. Scallops today are Virginia's richest seafood source.

"For the first time that I've ever seen, we're finally managing our oyster fishery instead of closing everything down or letting everyone take what they want," said Tommy Kellum, owner of the oyster shucking company that has his family name. It is the only shucking house still in business out of 11 that once existed in the Northern Neck town of Weems.

"We're protecting the resource, giving people work and keeping this industry viable," Kellum continued, his cellphone buzzing with activity in his pocket. "This is how things should be done."

The rotational policy, which began in 2007 in the Rappahannock as well as in Tangier and Pocomoke sounds near the Maryland border of the Bay, is not without controversy.

While the state director of oyster replenishment, Jim Wesson, wants to expand the concept to the York and James rivers, setting up management zones in each, federal officials with the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are not so sure.

They are concerned about spending tax dollars on restoration programs that let watermen take oysters for private gain. Instead, they want Virginia to build sanctuary reefs with no harvesting, reasoning that oysters there might survive diseases and perhaps one day spawn a new generation of disease-resistant stocks.

State officials, backed by watermen and merchants, say this is a doomed approach, noting that diseases kill between 70 and 90 percent of oysters within three years in Virginia waters. Furthermore, they add, reefs begin to crumble after several years of waves and predators and should be rebuilt periodically.

"It does no good to build reefs and walk away from them," Kellum said. "You might get a year or two of good recruitment, but that's it. It's over, and most of the oysters die."

The debate came to a head this year when Virginia refused to accept $2 million in federal oyster aid, saying it wanted to help restore stocks and benefit the industry. The two sides reached a truce of sorts, at least for the rest of 2011, and the Army Corps agreed to study the pros and cons of the rotational system.

That study should be completed in 2013, according to the corps in Norfolk, leaving open the question of how two more years of planned federal dollars will be spent in Virginia, if at all. Virginia did not allocate any state money toward the effort last year, citing a poor economy and budget cuts.

Tommy Leggett, a scientist and oyster farmer with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the rotational system "is about the best thing we have right now to create a sustainable fishery." He supports expanding the program to other rivers.

In the northern half of the Bay in Maryland, however, the state has virtually done away with earmarking public money to support private harvests. Last year, for example, Maryland closed about 24 percent of its public oyster grounds to create sanctuaries and, not surprisingly, saw its catch drop precipitously. Watermen fumed.

"In terms of long-term prospects, we're not expecting much improvement for harvest unless our oysters develop some disease resistance," said Michael Naylor, shellfish program manager for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Maryland brought to market about 171,955 pounds of oysters last year, according to federal data, one of its smallest catches in decades and less than half of what Virginia produced.

But the only way native oysters will rebound in the wild, Naylor said, is if the adults strong enough to live through the two diseases in the Bay, known as MSX and Dermo, pass on their genetic magic to a new generation.

To allow the possible capture of these hardened animals, as Virginia risks with its rotational system, "is simply a different approach that we are not following right now," Naylor said.

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