Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission is a state agency charged with overseeing Virginia's marine and aquatic resources, and its tidal waters and homelands. [1] One of the primary functions of the Commission is to zone water areas for outdoor swimming , for oyster and clamming grounds, and for fishing use.
Oyster shell reefs are another option when creating living shorelines. Oysters are critical in enhancing water quality and providing habitat to fish species, so creation of oyster reefs to decrease shoreline erosion rates have many added benefits. [ 6 ]
ORP plants the native oyster, Crassostrea virginica, back into the Chesapeake Bay. [12] [13] [14] In 2022, the organization helped to plant over 950,000,000 oysters. [15]The organization also works to provide educational opportunities to shellfish farmers on best practices for managing their oyster farms and leases.
The company's oyster farms are located in the Yeocomico River, Potomac River, James River, Rappahannock River, and York River. [9] [16] In 2002, the company also helped to restore an oyster reef in the river. [17] The company also operates a seafood cannery and packing facility and is a research partner with the State of Virginia.
Oyster reef restoration projects often place the sanitized shells of dead oysters, concrete, or limestone pieces on a soft bottom to encourage oyster spat settlement. [10] Restoration of intertidal eastern oyster reefs can match natural densities of oysters and mud crabs , and recover oyster stability in about 6 years. [ 18 ]
Additionally oyster beds provide cohabitation for mussels, barnacles, sea anemones and more. It has become a huge concern that the population of oyster reefs have been decreasing at a rapid rate. Many species are losing their habitat, animals are undergoing a decrease in food consumption and the ocean is experiencing less filtration.
Billion Oyster Project is a New York City-based nonprofit organization with the goal of engaging one million people in the effort to restore one billion oysters to New York Harbor by 2035. Because oysters are filter feeders , they serve as a natural water filter, with a number of beneficial effects for the ecosystem. [ 1 ]
oyster research in the 1950s that was the seminal work on the ecology of these shellfish; juvenile fish and blue crab surveys in Chesapeake Bay began in 1955; these key fishery management tools continue today; annual shark survey [6] started in 1973, this is now the world's longest-running fishery independent shark survey;