Doesn't sound all that good even in theory to me.  I view such proposals
with massive amounts of suspicion and apprehension.  If you want to improve
the oyster stock, you take care of the conditions they live in.  Eliminating
pollution and controlling over fishing would go a long way (I believe)
toward resolving the problem.  A healthier environment would mean the
oysters would stand a better chance against the introduced parasites and
eventually the oyster stock would evolve some added resistance.  Dumping in
alien species is a Band-Aid approach that, even if it works, has the
downside of very possibly pushing out the native species.  Let's see, we
pollute the water, then we'll over fish, then introduce a competing species.
If the original intent had been to eliminate the native species, could
anyone have come up with a better plan?

I reviewed a book a few years ago for American Conchologist (Taming of the
Oyster by Melbourne Romaine Carriker) that was basically a history of the
National Shellfisheries Association of the US.  Amidst perhaps too overly
detailed accounts of annual meetings and financial affairs, there was plenty
to show the ups and downs of the American shellfisheries through the last
century.  Time and again we have done it to ourselves.  Some over fishing
issues were hopefully addressed with the rise in aquaculture, but as a
nation we still allow millions of tons of pollutants from city garbage, to
farm fertilizers and pesticides, to factory farm sewage; to freely enter our
rivers and streams and flow to the sea as if it could endlessly tolerate
such massive amounts of filth.  Well, as we are discovering, it can't.

Sorry to wax so negative here, guess I need to go play with my granddaughter
a while and regain a more positive perspective.

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Monfils, Paul
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 9:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Chesapeake oysters


Sounds good in theory.  On the other hand there are multiple examples of
introduced parasites wreaking havoc with local species.  Hopefully
introduction of Asian oysters won't mean introduction of Asian parasites.

Paul M.

> ----------
> From:         Conchologists List on behalf of John Wolff
> Reply To:     Conchologists List
> Sent:         Thursday, March 2, 2006 6:25 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Chesapeake oysters
>
> Below, an excerpt from today's New York Times
> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/national/01oysters.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
>
> "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.
>
> Those who want Asian oysters introduced in the bay say they grow bigger
> and faster and, yes, taste as good as the native variety. But more than
> that, proponents say, Asian oysters, like their Chesapeake counterparts,
> perform a natural filtering function critical to the bay's health."
>
>
> John Wolff
> Lancaster, PA
>

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