Lynnhaven Oysters Make a Comeback

By: Lee Webb - CBN News
CBNNews.com - VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia

If you had come to the Dockside Raw Bar and Grille a few months ago and ordered oysters on the menu, the oysters the restaurant would have served you would have been flown in from Florida or from some other part of the country.

That's a shame. Because the oysters that once came out of the waters behind the restaurant were once a world-famous delicacy. They were known as Lynnhaven oysters and were served in the finest restaurants across the country. They were also specifically requested by presidents and kings.



Local Group's Goal: Clean Up River

The oysters' name is derived from the Lynnhaven River, an estuary in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay.

When English settlers first colonized the area in the early 1600's, the Lynnhaven was teaming with oysters. But by the mid-1900's, over harvesting and polluted water had decimated the popular delicacy.

Karen Forget leads the volunteer group known as Lynnhaven River Now, that's committed to cleaning up this historic body of water.

Virginia Beach is the state's most populated city. Thirty-five percent of the land surrounding the river is covered by hard surfaces like rooftops, driveways and roads.

"So on 35 percent of our watershed, when it rains the water goes directly into the storm water system, which goes directly back into the river and it carries with it whatever is on that surface," Forget explained.

Forget's group has rallied governmental agencies to address the problem. The city agreed to increase street sweeping in neighborhoods surrounding the river.

But Forget says it's local residents that can make the biggest difference by doing little things. Like hooking up rain barrels to down spouts to keep water from going directly into the drainage system and into the river.

"And then you capture some of the runoff from your roof when it rains and that water is available for you to use for your plants for your garden," she said. "You can fill up a watering can with it.".

It's now against the law to dump any sewage from a boat into the Lynnhaven River. Many of the local marinas, as well the sanitation department, provide a pumping service.

"But a major factor in the clean-up has been the oyster itself," Forget told CBN News. "Believe it or not, one adult oyster like this can filter about 50-gallons of water a day. That's why volunteers have built 36 acres of conservation reefs like that one to provide new habitat for the oyster. If we had a little aquarium here," she continued, like a little ten-gallon aquarium, and I put the dirtiest water you've ever seen in it and put a couple of oysters in it for about an hour, at the end of the hour the water would be clear."

Harvesting Oysters

The Lynnhaven isn't clear, but it's much cleaner than it was. Three years ago, only one-percent of the river was open to oyster harvesting. Now, that's up to almost 30 percent and the Lynnhaven oyster is making a comeback.

"These are mature and ready to go to market," Oyster farmer Cameron Chalmers explained. "They're anywhere from three to six inches."

Chalmers sold his landscaping business to become a full-time oyster farmer. He has about 250 of baskets in the water with a few hundred more that will be ready for market next year. Chalmers says he is grateful for the work forget and her volunteers are doing.

Local restaurants like the Dockside Inn agree. They began selling Lynnhaven oysters last fall. They're not cheap at about ten dollars for a dozen. That's because there isn't a big supply yet and the demand is big.

Environmental Stewardship

Reverend Ralph Weitz is with the Cornwall Alliance, a coalition of religious leaders and scientists committed to bringing a balanced biblical view of environmental stewardship. He applauds the strategy being used in Virginia Beach.

"It's very practical application of environmental concern and that's where we Christians can be very hands-on and be involved in it," Weitz said. "And it creates employment and I think that's an important part, not only for the local economy, but our economy in general."

CBN News asked Weitz why he thought so many people are comfortable about getting involved with the Lynnhaven oyster project. Weitz says it has to do with people wanting to get involved to help the local community.

"It's really hard for people to relate to big global issues like global warming," he said. "But this is their own back yard, this is their community. And we've enjoyed tremendous support from the people in Virginia Beach who are really behind this effort to clean up their river."

Future of oystering in Va. may lie with private sector

Hatcheries may be able to supply enough seed to re-establish industry

Aquaculture oysters
By LAWRENCE LATANE III

With sales jumping almost sixfold in the past three years, private oyster farmers might be the key to rebuilding Virginia's oyster population.

"We can have more oysters on the bottom if somebody's being profitable," said James Wesson, the leader of the state's battle to bring back dead or depleted oyster reefs.

In the past 16 years, Wesson, oyster manager for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, has overseen the spending of $18.9 million in state and federal funds with little or no reward because of disease pressure and predatory cownosed rays.

"We may be holding our own," he said, "but we've not seen much evidence of improvement in the long term."

But at the end of a sun-drenched dock on the Northern Neck's Coan River, 4 million baby seed oysters are the latest crop in a contraption that force-feeds them algae so they will grow quickly.

The fingernail-sized bivalves soon will be placed overboard in predator-proof cages that will be constantly cleaned and tended. Once the shellfish reach 3 inches long, in 12 to 18 months, they will be harvested.

Growing oysters this way is costly, time-consuming and labor-intensive, said A.J. Erskine, aquaculturalist for two of the state's biggest oyster-processing companies. But it's effective.

. . .

The few surviving Virginia oyster businesses are especially motivated to get oysters to market. As Chesapeake Bay oysters began crashing in the 1980s, the state's oyster packers turned to out-of-state sources, such as Louisiana.

With diesel-fuel prices rising, oyster packers are looking for a source of supply closer to home.

For Erskine, that means possibly building a hatchery on the Northern Neck under a proposal presented by his bosses, Cowart Seafood Co. and Bevans Oyster Co., and Kellum Seafood and the Northern Neck Planning District Commission.

The commission is negotiating with a consultant to study the plan.

"We think a hatchery will be very instrumental in bringing the oyster back," said Jerry Davis, the commission's director. He expects that a hatchery would cost at least $1 million.

Lake Cowart Jr., who runs Cowart Seafood in Northumberland County, said the oyster industry's future may depend on it.

"We're absolutely at the point we cannot get enough [seed oysters] out of Virginia," he said.

A handful of hatcheries operate in the state, but such businesses as Cowart, Bevans of Westmoreland County and Kellum in Lancaster County that grow their own oysters on bottom leased from the state need more seed than they can find.

"I'd say the demand is double or triple [the supply] at this point," Cowart said.

A Virginia Institute of Marine Science Sea Grant Extension study released in May reinforces Cowart's claim.

It showed that private oyster growers in the state almost tripled the hatchery oysters they planted in 2006 -- 16 million compared with 6 million the year before. In 2007, though, the rate of increase slowed. They planted 18.4 million hatchery oysters. The study blamed a lack of hatchery seed.

"The need for hatcheries is immense," said Mike Oesterling, a VIMS aquaculture specialist who co-wrote the report.

Virginia once measured its annual oyster harvest in the tens of millions of bushels. Years of overharvest sent stocks slowly down until the mid-1980s, when diseases Dermo and MSX infiltrated the bay and killed oysters.

The annual catch reached its nadir of 17,691 bushels in 1996. It climbed briefly to 100,000 and subsided.

. . .

Hatcheries are gaining support. A Virginia study group recommended last year that the state encourage private business to build them.

Problems with disease and predation give hatchery production the advantage over wild oysters.

VIMS has developed genetically selected strains of oysters that resist diseases that continue to wipe out wild oysters. Hatcheries also can produce sterile oysters that put all their energy into growth, instead of reproduction.

Erskine noted that a hatchery can produce a reliable supply of baby oysters, or spat, year after year.

Hatcheries may also combat the latest threat to Virginia's frail oyster population: cownosed rays.

Hatchers and the marine resources commission are experimenting with a technique that allows disease-resistant oyster larvae to attach to oyster shells. The resulting cluster is often too much of a mouthful for rays.

Contact Lawrence Latané III at (804) 333-3461 or llatane@timesdispatch.com.

CBF seeks oyster gardeners

Hampton Roads -

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) needs volunteer gardeners throughout Hampton Roads this summer to help restore the oyster population and improve the water quality of the bay, its rivers and streams. The program provides individuals with the opportunity to help bring back the species by using the area beside their docks. One oyster can filter 50 gallons of polluted water a day. Oyster reefs also provide much needed habitat for other marine life.



Oyster gardening volunteers in Gloucester can receive instruction from CBF experts at a training seminar on July 29, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The seminar will be at Waterman's Hall on the Virginia Institute of Marine Science campus, located on Route 1208, Greate Road, Gloucester Point. There is a $25 fee and participants will be provided with 1,000 baby "seed" oysters and asked to nurture them for one year until the oysters reach maturity. At that time, CBF will collect the oysters and place them on state-protected oyster reefs in rivers around Virginia.



Participants must have access to water with the proper salinity. One simple test is that if salt can be tasted in the creek or river water, it generally means there is enough salt to grow oysters. For more information, contact Charlene Ihrig, 757-622-1964 or e-mail, hamptonroads@cbf.org.

Urbana Oyster Festival 2008

Keeping you posted for details on Oyster Festival 2008!!!
Stay tuned.

Governors call for deep cuts to blue crab harvest

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says the crab is in peril but feels a reduced harvest will last only two or three years.

By Patrick Lynch

COLONIAL BEACH - The governors of Virginia and Maryland stood together on the banks of the Potomac River Tuesday and demanded the two states enforce a deep cut to the Chesapeake Bay blue crab harvest to pull the species out of its stagnated depths.

Making a rare step into the nuts and bolts of commercial fishing regulations, the governors called for a 34 percent bay wide reduction in this year's female blue crab harvest. The blue crab has been overfished eight of the past 11 years, and the governors learned on Tuesday that in 2007 the species was more heavily targeted than usual — every six out of 10 adult crabs were plucked from the Chesapeake during the year, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

"The blue crab is in peril," Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said. "We sit today at the bottom of a very precipitous fall."

Kaine and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley acknowledged the cut will cause financial pain to watermen in the Chesapeake's most lucrative fishery. But they said the crab industry will suffer more if the crabs aren't given a chance to recover from near historic low numbers.

"We're at a point on the crab harvest that the price of inaction is greater than the price of action," Kaine said. "We do not want to wake up five to 10 years from now and realize we lost this very important part of who we are."

Kaine and O'Malley's joint appearance marked what some called a historic moment. The states have worked together before on bay issues, but rarely with this much attention focused so urgently on one of the icons of the Chesapeake.
With oysters barely surviving, blue crabs have been the primary target for watermen in both states who still seek to make a living solely on the water.

The hardy crab has sustained itself through years of overfishing and severe degradation of the bay's water quality and prime crab habitat.

But in the past decade the blue crab has shown no signs of its typical, vital resurgence after a period of decline.

The population has always gone up and down in cycles, but the cycle has seemed to stop — at the bottom.

The governors' call for reducing the female crab harvest by a third is also a dramatic step for two states that have, throughout the decline of the bay's quality and fisheries, taken a measured approach to save the seafood industry and the environment.

Kaine and O'Malley said the stricter regulations should only be short-term measures. The blue crab is a highly fecund species with a short life-span that can reproduce rapidly in the right conditions. As the stock rebounds, so should the industry, Kaine said.

"The industry can rebound," he said. "When positive steps are taken, this is a very resilient species."

The governors made their remarks after hearing the latest results from the annual winter survey of the Chesapeake's blue crab population. The study found about 120 million adult crabs — a number scientists say should be 200 million at a minimum — and 280 million crabs of all ages.

Biologists say no more than 46 percent of the bay's crabs should be harvested each year. But in 2007, 60 percent were caught, even though there were fewer watermen as they continue to leave the water for steadier jobs.

Lynn Fegley, crab biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said it is important to reduce the number of females caught because they are more heavily fished and because they are more important to the stock's ability to reproduce.

"More moms, more babies," Fegley said.

Kaine said that if the regulations work the way they should, the crab stock could rebound to healthier levels in two to three years.

The governors did not lay out policy options to achieve their goal, but said they would leave those decisions to the state's regulatory bodies. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission has already passed a spate of new measures this year, but will take more significant steps next Tuesday.

Jack Travelstead, VMRC deputy commissioner, pointed to a handful of new regulations that together could add up to part of a 34 percent cut in females caught.

The option to eliminate winter dredging — where fishermen drag the bottom to catch hibernating, pregnant females — would cut about 17 percent of the female harvest, he said. Closing the hard and peeler pot fisheries early, around Oct. 27, would cut about 6 percent. New regulations on cull rings and size limits that the VMRC already passed will comprise an 11 percent reduction, he said.

Depending on what the VMRC board decides, any difference toward the goal could be made up by closing the season on females earlier in October, Travelstead said.

"This is pretty severe," said Ken Smith, vice president of the Virginia Waterman's Association.

Smith said the new restrictions could force a few more watermen off the water.

"There's going to be some of that," he said. "The way crabbing's going anyways, you're going to see crabbers fall every year."

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ILLEGAL CATCH: Court date set for Shore man with undersized oysters

Throw the book at him!

A Daily Times Staff Report

EASTON — A Wittman man accused of trying to smuggle undersized oysters on a vessel near St. Michaels is scheduled to appear May 15 in Talbot County District Court.

Joseph Bruce Janda, 22, is accused of navigating a vessel through a Chesapeake Bay waterway with no lights, while hauling 11 bushels of oysters of which up to 30 percent were undersized, according to the Maryland Natural Resources Police.



The undersized oysters were discovered in a locked area of the vessel about 5 a.m. on Feb. 21, as Janda headed toward Wittman Landing, according to the NRP. Authorities secured a search and seizure warrant after Janda refused to unlock a door that blocked access to the bow or trunk cabin area, the agency said.

In all, the suspect is charged with 11 counts of possession of undersized oysters, as well as possession during a prohibited time and operating a vessel between sunset and sunrise without proper navigation lights and with expired visual distress signals, the NRP said.


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"Knock-Off" Oysters Bingo Recipe

Yum

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)

freshly ground black pepper

1 baguette cut in slices and toasted till crisp outside, still tender inside (I use a whole grain baguette)

4 cups baby spinach or baby greens

24 shucked oysters with their liquor or 1/2 pint if you are buying them already shucked (I would use the smaller standards or selects)

5 shallots peeled and chopped fine

2 tablespoons butter

Melt butter in medium sauté pan.

Add chopped shallots and cook over medium-low heat until transparent. Add vinegar, and then add oysters with their liquor.

Stir gently until oysters are just cooked (the fringes of the oyster will look like ruffles). Do not overcook. Add salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble: On a salad plate, place a handful of greens, then place 2-3 toast slices on top of greens.

Ladle the oyster-shallot mixture with liquid over the bread and greens and serve immediately.

Recipie found on: Play-with-food.blogspot.com. Check it out.

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