Oyster sanctuaries in Virginia's waters are key to scientists understanding disease, pollution and other factors that affect the population. But watermen believe to keep sanctuaries healthy, they should be harvested.
For years scientists have been using oyster sanctuaries to build back the wild oyster population in Virginia. Ryan Carnegie, a scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, says there's a huge value in sanctuaries, including larger oysters that are beginning to outlive disease.
“There are going to be benefits to giving these animals more opportunities to live in these environments, to pass on those genes.”
But scientific progress is slow and oystermen have been asking the state to open sanctuaries and more public grounds that are harvested on rotational basis. Scientists and watermen were at the recent opening of the Virginia Oyster Trail. Oysterman Ernie George shucked oysters, and explained that oysters like any other crop are healthier when regularly harvested.
“We had a real good strike, the little ones, this year, everywhere. Probably the best one I've ever seen. I attribute it to working the bottom, just like a farmer, if you don't work it, it grows up pine trees.”
The debate between scientists and watermen is nothing new. Back in the 1920's scientists lost out to watermen, who then depleted wild stocks. Tommy Leggett started out as a VIMS scientist but is now a commercial oyster farmer.
“They harvested 5 to 10 million bushels a year until the '20s. It tanked. And it's never rebounded to that point again. It never will, to be perfectly honest. So, as hard and as painful as it is for watermen, what few oysters we have cannot sustain the level it once stood.”
Watermen say they'd like scientists to research their harvest theory to build back the wild oyster.
