In 25 years, how many oysters will there be in Chesapeake Bay, and what would the ecosystem look like if the Bay had more sanctuaries? What if there were fewer sanctuaries, or if harvest areas rotated?
A unique partnership called OysterFutures is working toward answering questions like these.
Elizabeth North, a fisheries oceanographer at UMCES’ Horn Point Laboratory, is leading this effort to bring scientists, watermen, and other stakeholders together to discuss goals and challenges within the fishery, and ultimately map out a future that balances ecological and economic interests in the Choptank River.
The OysterFutures group is looking for better approaches to revive the oyster population that fell to less than 1 percent of population levels in the early 1800s due to overfishing, disease, and habitat loss.
“The Choptank River system is one of the most productive areas for oyster production in the state,” said Michael Wilberg, a fisheries scientist with UMCES’ Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and member of the OysterFutures scientific team.
The system hosts 5 to 10 square miles of oyster reef, and 30 to 50 percent of Maryland’s oyster harvest.
“The goal is to see if we can get this group of people with diverse backgrounds and interests together on what should be done with oysters.”
Wilberg and the rest of the OysterFutures scientific team used the group’s discussions and historical data to shape a computer model that can demonstrate how various scenarios, such as rotating harvest areas that limit the impact on a particular site or changing size limits, affect the river and its ecosystem. The model could then serve as a guide in setting future regulations that can achieve what everyone in the group agrees on: better water quality and enough oysters for harvest while maintaining a sustainable industry.
The ongoing restoration programs are really advanced and the partnerships that people have developed to get those programs going are tremendous.
The simulation model has been developed with the stakeholder group make sure answers were realistic and that the stakeholders agreed it was a good tool.
It does not predict what will happen in the future, but it can evaluate options and depict how different choices affect the oyster population, the fishery, ecosystem benefits oysters provide, and even revenue generated by the fishery, North said.
“That’s what the benefit of this model is—it’s based on actual data and integrates people’s experiences,” she said. “The model synthesizes a lot of information and provides a transparent way of putting information into our best understanding of how the oyster population works and how the dynamics of the fishery works with it.”
Now the stakeholders will use the model’s projections to draft recommendations they feel meet their needs to present to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
This whole process is new, at least for oysters, but North and Wilberg agreed it has the benefit of not just improving the current fishery, but also helping people from different backgrounds find common ground.
“A lot of times people can’t come to an agreement on what we should do because they’re coming from different backgrounds and may also have stereotypes about what other people might think. This process is supposed to get everybody on the same page with information,” Wilberg said.
The OysterFutures group has facilitators that run the meetings, and all decisions are based on a rating process where the stakeholders can bring up an idea, discuss it, and then call to rate it. For an idea to move forward, it needs 75 percent agreement, North said.
“The process we’re doing puts everyone on equal footing with regards to information and then we just discuss it,” Wilberg said. “It gets people talking about something other than contentious issues.”
The OysterFutures project operates with a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation. The process will serve as a test approach for making fishing regulations and natural resource management.
North thinks this kind of approach could lend to a more widely beneficial and ultimately more sustainable fishery that proves a smart next step for ongoing restoration practices.
“The ongoing restoration programs are really advanced and the partnerships that people have developed to get those programs going are tremendous,” she said. “OysterFutures is trying to look at the fishery and figure out what kind of new approaches could be taken that integrate the fishing with restoration in a way that ensures the long-term health of the fishery as well as the resource, and hopefully bring less confrontation between the different communities that are surrounding the oyster.”
Story by Kristi Moore