Asian oyster in the Chesapeake, a good invasive idea.

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the US (166,534 square kilometers or 64,299 mi²). It is famous for the fishing industry on blue crabs (tastety Callinectes sapidus), clams, striped bass and oysters. However, the Bay's environmental conditions have been poor. There has been massive fish kills due to algal blooms, overharvesting, runoff wastes and diseases that make the water so turbid, depleted in oxygen, to say the least. Oysters serve as natural water filters, but its population is severely declining. This debate on the introduction Asian oyster, to revive the lagging native ones has been ongoing for a few years now.

For centuries, bountiful harvests sustained little towns around the bay. But these days the harvest of native oysters, decimated by disease, pollution and overfishing, is measured in tens of thousands of bushels a year, a tiny fraction of the 20 million bushels that were once taken.

Now officials in Maryland and Virginia are considering a radical approach to saving the oyster fishery and, they say, perhaps the bay itself: introducing an Asian oyster that appears resistant to the two parasites that have killed off so many of its Chesapeake cousins. Indeed, the Asian oyster is one focus of a three-year study undertaken by federal agencies, working with state officials and scientists, on ways to revive the harvest. [...]

Even as they consider Asian imports, scientists also say it is too early to give up on other, native approaches to restoration. Among the findings of the latest oyster research is an untapped potential for techniques like genetic altering of native oysters to create disease-tolerant strains, as well as wider use of sterile native oysters, which grow faster because they do not expend energy that would otherwise be used for reproduction.

I've been fortunate to work with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, as an intern, to realize that the water quality of the Bay is "icky". Restoring its health is tough because much of the polluting substances arise far upstream in tributaries. Millions of dollars has been poured into restoration efforts, and we are not any healthier. There are risks when introducing alien species, but aquacultural studies have proved potential revival of the native oysters, or so I've read. I'm for the introduction of Asian oysters into the Chesapeake. I think local governments should consider this option. These oysters are not snakeheads or kudzus, God forbids. So, let the Asian shellfish help restore the harvest. It will be beneficial.