Virginia's 2015-16 oyster harvest dipped slightly from the previous year, from about 650,000 bushels to 631,000 bushels, reversing a seven-year trend of increasing hauls.
But the 19,000-bushel drop wasn't entirely unexpected. Jim Wesson, oyster management expert at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said it reflects the low spat sets surveyed in 2013 and 2014, when there were simply fewer baby oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries to grow to market size.
Spat, or oyster larvae, must "set" or attach to oyster reefs or some other hard-bottom substrate in order to grow and thrive.
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