Public/Private Oyster Restoration in VirginiaVirginia Institute of Marine Science/ Virginia Marine Resource Commission

Michael S. Congrove, Standish K. Allen Jr., Jim WessonBackground

Concept

Implementation

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

1. Coan River

2. Drumming Ground

3. Temple Bay

4. Palace Bar

5. Ware River

6. Pungoteague Creek

5

6

34

1

2

The plight of the Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica):

- dramatic population decrease over the last five decades in Chesapeake Bay

- over-fishing and two prolific disease causing parasites

- Haplosporidium nelsoni MSX

- Perkinsus marinus Dermo

- reduction of hard substrate available for recruitment of the larval form

Restoration in Virginia:

- mid 1990s, 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shell reef structures with year-old single oysters, year zero broodstock

- Shortcomings of this method include:

- lack of natural recruitment due to the reduced populations of diseased wilds stocks

- heavy predation of planted broodstock from cow nose rays

- reef deterioration due to wave and current action and sedimentation

Remote setting of oyster larvae has been effective since the late 80’s on the west coast and more recently, in Maryland in an effort to restore local oyster populations through a state and federal program. Remote setting involves the production of eyed oyster larvae in culture, then facilitating it to set on whole oyster shell in large tanks at a “remote” location away from the hatchery, often near where the spat will be planted. A departure from the Maryland model used here is the use of private industry to provide the infrastructure and man power to produce the spat-on-shell. Private oyster hatcheries produce eyed larvae which are bought by private remote setting operations that are then reimbursed by the Commonwealth per bushel of spat-on-shell planted on state-designated reefs. NOAA provides funding to the Commonwealth for this program.

Implementers of this new model of restoration in Virginia:- Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)- Virginia Marine Resource Commission (VMRC)- NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO)

Design:- VIMS’ produced disease resistant broodstock is delivered to

private oyster hatcheries- the hatchery produces eyed larvae - eyed larvae is purchased directly by the industry setting

station- the six industry setting stations are responsible for:

- acquiring shell cultch- containerizing the shell- setting the shell - planting the seed on a state designated sanctuary reef

- the state pays the setting station according to the amount of seed planted on the reef.

Each of 18 sets completed this summer was overseen by VIMS and monitoring continues at all sites conducted by VIMS or VMRC. Small control sets performed in the lab were also done for each remote set to help isolate the source of any setting problems.

Setting Stations Event Sequence Advantages of remote setting: - reduced predation resulting from the protection offered by whole shell- ability to plant spat at a smaller size effectively removing the nursery phase involved in planting single oysters, - the ability to plant far greater numbers of spat on these reefs to provide adequate broodstock, and - the reef-building quality of spat-on-shell.

It is the goal of this project to use these advantages to produce sustainable oyster reefs in the most economical way possible.

Important results:- 25 million spat were planted on six sanctuary reefs - preliminary deployment mortality is approximately 57%- preliminary control results show that none of the low efficiency sets were due to poor eyed larvae quality

Perhaps most importantly, the project has shown that in-place oyster industry is prepared and willing to participate financially and physically in local oyster restoration using remote setting.

A major limitation was a lack of local hatchery capacity to produce eyed larvae to the scale necessary for the project. Hatchery capacity will need to be increased if the scale of this project is to increase.       Control Field Spat/shell Oysters Spat/shell

One Week Oysters

Reef Site Set Date Set Efficiency Efficiency Deployment Deployed One Week Mortality 1 week

Temple 1 7/6/2006 20.22% 24.09% 36.13 3,613,000 9.49 73.73% 949,000

Bay 2 8/11/2006 14.80% 4.19% 6.28 628,000 5.45 13.22% 545,000

  3 8/21/2006   21.15% 31.72 3,171,875 8.98 71.69% 897,965

            7,412,875     2,391,965

Coan River1 7/25/2006 26.97% 0.90% 1.35 135,468 0.86 36.30% 86,298

  2 8/16/2006 12.64% 0.98% 1.47 147,000 0.64 56.46% 64,000

            282,468     150,298

Drumming 1 8/5/2006 26.72% 9.06% 8.71 1,358,416 5.15 40.87% 803,197

Ground 2 8/19/2006 12.15% 16.60% 23.94 2,489,760 7.32 69.42% 761,280

  3 8/31/2006   7.93% 11.44 1,189,760 1.65 85.58% 171,600

  4 9/9/2006   11.09% 15.99 1,662,960      

            6,700,896      

Palace 1 8/15/2006 21.89% 11.42% 6.8 1,713,600 1.61 76.32% 405,720

Bar 2 9/28/2006   0.85% 0.9 126,900      

            1,840,500      

Ware 1 8/2/2006 14.58% 4.57% 5.85 657,750 3.12 46.67% 350,800

River 2 8/16/2006 34.68% 10.17% 15.26 1,525,888 9.39 38.47% 938,931

  3 8/25/2006 26.12% 10.35% 15.53 1,552,500 8.42 45.78% 841,729

  4 9/19/2006   7.53% 11.29 1,129,470      

            4,865,608      

Pungoteague 1 8/11/2006 11.70% 8.13% 9.99 1,218,780 2.04 79.58% 248,880

Creek 2 8/20/2006 20.37% 10.63% 13.07 1,594,540 3.99 69.47% 486,780

  3 10/4/2006   7.74% 9.52 1,161,440      

            3,974,760      

mean/ total     20.24% 9.30% 12.51 25,077,107 4.87 57.40%  ~10,682,847

Setting Efficiency

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

TB-1 CR-1 WR-1 DG-1 TB-2 PC-1 PB-1 CR-2 WR-2 DG-2 PC-2 TB-3 WR-3 DG-3 DG-4 WR-4 PB-2 PC-3

Site

Efficiency

Planting Mortality

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

TB-1 CR-1WR-1DG-1TB-2 PC-1PB-1 CR-2WR-2DG-2PC-2 TB-3WR-3DG-3DG-4WR-4PB-2 PC-3

Site

spat/shell

deployment

one week

•Local industry has proven to be a willing and able participant in this remote setting oyster restoration model.

•Time will tell if this method is sustainable from a restoration point of view.

•Education and training of industry in this mode of oyster production opens the possibility of its use for private seed production to be grown out for market.

•Hatchery capacity in Virginia must be increased to continue with this mode of restoration.

•Successful implantation of this public/private restoration program could lead to commercial spat-on-shell aquaculture

PartnersHatcheries

Middle Peninsula Aquaculture, Matthews VA

Horn Point Laboratories, Cambridge MD

Setting Stations

Cowart Seafood, Lottsburg VA

Kellum Seafood, Weems VA

Shores and Ruark Seafood, Urbanna VA

Seafarms, Hudgins VA

Mobjack Bay Seafood, Mobjack VA

Shore Seafood, Saxis VA

Funding

NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office

Table 1: setting results by site

Figure 1: Setting efficiency by site in chronological order

Figure 2: Planting mortality by site in chronological order

(Preliminary)

Temple Bay

Coan River

Drumming Ground

Palace Bar

Ware River

Pungoteague Creek

Setting Results by Site

July August Oct.September