Preliminary estimates put Virginia’s oyster harvest during the last year at 504,000 bushels, a 25 percent increase over the previous year and the most harvested since the 1987–88 season. Estimates from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission show that harvests on public oyster grounds grew from 150,534 bushels in 2012–13 to 213,152 bushels last winter.
Those grown on private leases, which includes the burgeoning aquaculture industry, grew from 258,378 bushels a year ago to 290,961 bushels.
It is a dramatic turnaround from the low point of 1995–96, when just 17,691 bushels were harvested on public and private grounds combined.
“Over the past few years, Virginia has become the oyster capital of the East Coast, and that is great news for our commonwealth’s economy,” proclaimed Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a press release.
The total dockside value of harvests from public and private grounds was estimated at $22.2 million.
Officials credited the growth from public grounds in part to management actions in which fossil shell dredged from beneath the James River is placed in the river to catch larvae from reproducing oysters, which can grow to market size in about three years.
Landings from private leases, which include the state’s rapidly expanding aquaculture industry, have grown at an even faster pace, from a low of 3,794 a decade ago to 290,961 bushels.
Still, the state’s harvest is small compared with a little more than a half century ago, when harvests sometimes exceeded 4 million bushels.
“Oysters are doing well right now,” said VMRC Commissioner John M.R. Bull. “We are making tremendous progress. But oysters are still susceptible to disease and other environmental factors outside of our control. A lot of people have put a lot of work into getting Virginia into this position and it is paying dividends. It is worth celebrating, but we need to keep in mind that oysters live in a dynamic, ever-changing ecosystem.”
In May, Maryland officials also predicted that that state’s oyster harvest would exceed 400,000 bushels, the highest in at least 15 years, with a dockside value of $13 million. Bay journal link – http://www.bayjournal.com/
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