Delaware Bay Oyster Restoration Project, Delaware & New Jersey

COOPERATIVE CONSERVATION CASE STUDY

Oyster Revitalization in the Delaware Bay

Location: Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic

Project Summary: Planting of 110,000 bushels of shell that provide suitable substrate for development of juvenile oysters, resulting in both environmental & economic benefits to the Delaware Bay on a regional level.

Planting Shell (Cultch) in the Delaware Bay 6 July 2005 Photo Taken By: A. Muscavage

Resource Challenge

Oysters have provided a sustainable food supply, been enjoyed, and contributed to the local economy of Delaware and New Jersey for centuries. Through the mid-1980s, the oyster industry provided steady employment along the Delaware Bay shore of both states; areas which today are chronically afflicted by unemployment substantially above the state average. Siltation and sedimentation has impaired the natural shell substrate which is imperative in the oyster developmental process. In addition, the oyster industry nearly disappeared during the early 1990s with the insurgence of an oyster disease, Dermo that restricted the survival of oysters to market size. From 1990 to 1995, the industry provided little in jobs or revenue in New Jersey . Oystering in Delaware did not reopen until 2001. Recognizing the problem, the New Jersey Legislature passed a joint resolution (SJR-19, 1996) establishing the "Oyster Industry Revitalization Task Force (OIRTF)'' to develop recommendations that could lead to significant expansion of the oyster industry and its associated economic benefits in the Delaware Bay. In 2001, representatives of Delaware and New Jersey, including both state regulatory agencies (DNREC/NJDEP), the Delaware River and Basin Commission (DRBC), the Delaware Estuary Program, the Shellfish Councils for both states, and interested citizens began development of a bi-state oyster revitalization initiative based on the OIRTF

The goal of this project, the primary goal of the OIRTF and the subsequent oyster working group, is to enhance recruitment by enhancing natural seed supply through the planting of shell (cultch) to provide improved habitat for recruitment of juvenile oysters (spat). This activity will expand oyster abundance, increase oyster harvest, and revitalize the natural resource with concomitant improvements in Bay habitat quality from increased habitat complexity brought about by shell planting and increased water clarity brought about by the increased filtration of an abundant shellfish resource.

Examples of Key Partners

US Army Corps of Engineers

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Rutgers University Haskins Shellfish Research Laboratory

Delaware River and Bay Authority

Delaware River Basin Commission

Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

Results and Accomplishments

The project seeks to implement a shell-planting program that will substantially promote improvements in the oyster resource of Delaware Bay and in the economics of the Delaware Bay oyster fishery. The program is not revolutionary, in the sense that the approach has been used successfully by other states and in pilot-scale initiatives within Delaware Bay which have been extremely successful.

Resource and Habitat: The addition of shell will augment the oyster resource of Delaware Bay . The metric which will define project success will be identified by the abundance of spat per bushel on a planted site versus that of other naturally producing sites that were not planted with cultch. However, in future years, this metric should focus on the total number of oysters supported by this shell plant, including market-size individuals. The monitoring program described subsequently will outline the methodology for measuring this metric each year of the program.

Bay Shore Economy: The addition of shell should have a great impact in the production of the Delaware Bay oyster fishery. Each state conducts a formal stock assessment and quota setting process that determines the number of bushels permissible for harvest in the coming year. This process will be used to compare the quota set each year to the quota that would have been established had the shell-planting program not been carried out. Oysters normally take three years to reach market size in Delaware Bay . Once the oysters mature to market size they can be harvested for commercial markets. As the commercial fishery increases monies collected from the fisherman on a per bushel basis this money can be placed back into other oyster revitalization projects.

Innovation/Highlight

This project is based on a previous pilot program by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that was extremely successful. Based on this study we are expecting approximate recovery to be in the range of 1800 spat per bushel versus 50 spat per bushel which is the average recruitment on the existing natural beds in the bay. In addition to ecological enhancement of a native species, the increased recovery can translate into a return of $50:$1 for the economy. The ORITF hopes to continue its effort in FY06 by submitting applications for shellplanting projects via Section 104 of the Estuary Restoration Act of 2000 and Section 1135 of the USACE Continuing Authorities Program.

Project Contact

Amanda Muscavage
Project Manager
US Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District
100 Penn Square East Wanamaker Building
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215.656.6576
amanda.j.muscavage@usace.army.mil

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