TILGHMAN ISLAND -- Consider the oyster, a metaphor for endurance, and for change.
Despite disease, pollution, habitat loss and over-harvesting, the oyster still survives in the Chesapeake Bay, probably with better long-term prospects than are enjoyed by those who'd like to make their living catching him.
On a winter afternoon, oysters still come ashore here at Knapp's Narrows, just as they have for generations. Tongers' workboats bring them in, and so, occasionally, does one of the half-dozen skipjacks still dredging. It makes a pleasant scene, a reminder of the bay's historic abundance.
But the numbers tell another story. The oyster harvest dwindled slowly for a century, then crashed. In Maryland it totaled 1.5 million bushels in 1986. Then came the disease MSX, believed brought by oysters transplanted from the West Coast. A few years ago the Maryland harvest was 70,000 bushels. Last year, a rainy one which dropped salinity levels below MSX's tolerance, it rebounded to 200,000 bushels.
It seems safe to say that the harvest will never return to its old levels, at least in the lifetimes of today's watermen -- or of their grandchildren. There may still be opportunities to earn a living from the oyster, but they'll be in the dreaded realm of aquaculture.
Hunter-gatherers
Oysters and other shellfish can be profitably farmed, like chickens or trout. But self-respecting watermen, who like to think of themselves as free-roaming hunter-gatherers rather than stay-at-home farmers, tend to hate that idea. They'd mostly rather be on the state's dole, as long as it's sufficiently disguised to preserve their self-respect, than tied to oyster farms.
The story's told of a recent meeting of out-of-work oyster buyboat skippers in Annapolis, there to discuss hauling oystershell for the Department of Natural Resources' habitat-restoration program. One captain said he was willing to do the state's work and take the state's dollar -- but only so long as no one dared to lecture him about aquaculture.
All this came up here the other day at a Chesapeake Bay Foundation panel discussion on the possibilities of oyster restoration. The foundation has set a long-term goal of increasing the oyster population in the bay by eight-fold, whatever that really means. Nobody, of course, knows how many oysters are down there now. They just know there are a lot fewer than there used to be.
