Overharvesting, habitat destruction, pollution, and disease have reduced native oyster populations to less than one percent of historic levels. The tremendous decline has caused the loss of the three-dimensional oyster reef structures which provide essential fish habitat for oysters as well as other shellfish, finfish, and blue crabs.

Because oyster reefs provide critically important habitat, NOAA provides significant funding to implement restoration of native oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office supports efforts by the Oyster Recovery Partnership in Maryland, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of the College of William and Mary.

NOAA funds have helped support the oyster fishery, and also sanctuaries that are permanently protected from harvest. Beginning in 2001, the Oyster Recovery Partnership developed a new strategy known as “managed reserves”, where existing oysters are removed to reduce the local disease reservoir, and the area is then planted with disease-free spat on shell. Unlike sanctuaries, managed reserves are opened for controlled harvest after remaining closed for a period of time. Keeping certain reefs closed to harvest allows them to develop as structural habitat, develop older, more fecund broodstock, and provide the water-quality benefits of filtration. This strategy began to show promise in 2004 when 4-inch oysters were harvested from areas planted in 2001.

With support from NOAA, extensive shell plantings have been accomplished in Virginia, along with monitoring and research of Army Corps of Engineers-sponsored oyster restoration projects. NOAA also offers technical assistance, vessel and diver support, program coordination, and science-based assessment to these efforts.