As a Maryland panel prepares to decide whether to restart a stalled oyster restoration project, a similar effort in another Choptank River tributary is meeting early goals, a survey has found.
A dozen oyster reefs planted in the Harris Creek in 2011 and 2012 are all meeting a baseline target, hosting the bivalves at a density of at least 15 oysters per square meter. Half of them have enough oysters to hit a more agressive benchmark of 50 oysters per square meter, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report released Wednesday.
It is the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office's first review of $44 million in investments in oyster reefs that began with the Harris Creek and have continued in two other Choptank tributaries, the Little Choptank and Tred Avon rivers.
The information comes as the state's Oyster Advisory Commission considers whether to continue work in the Tred Avon. State officials asked the Army Corps of Engineers late last year to pause work building reefs there until more could be learned about how effective oyster restoration efforts in Harris Creek have been, a request that diverted $1 million in federal money from Maryland to Virginia.
A separate report is meanwhile expected this week from the state Department of Natural Resources looking more broadly at how oysters are faring in 51 sanctuaries across the Chesapeake Bay.
The NOAA report found that the Harris Creek reefs are faring better than control reefs on which no construction was done or oyster spat deposited. Of those four control reefs, two met the minimum oyster density standard, but none met the higher goal.
The Harris Creek reefs also contained multiple generations of oysters, a possible sign that the oysters are successfully reproducing naturally. Some of the older oysters could also have been present before restoration efforts began, the report said.
Scientists have a plan to survey oyster densities in all three of the Choptank tributaries three years after new reefs are established, and again after six years. The Harris Creek reefs are the first to hit the three-year mark, so more data on other reefs is expected in the coming years.
The oyster commission must inform the Army Corps by early August whether it should resume work in the Tred Avon this winter, state officials have said. The group plans to meet Aug. 1 to decide.
Click here to read the full report.