Millions are being spent to restore the bay’s oyster population even as the bivalves’ population remains at historic lows.
From the time of the Civil War to the mid-1980s, a significant portion of all oysters eaten in America came from the Chesapeake Bay, powering a booming industry on the waters and sometimes even a violent one. From the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, “oyster wars” pitted authorities and legal watermen from Maryland and Virginia against oyster pirates.
The oysters weren’t just for eating — experts say that at their peak, oysters could filter all the water in the bay in one week.
But since 1994, the bay’s oyster population has sat at less than one percent of historic levels, according to Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. Over the past 30 years, what the state calls “suitable oyster habitats” have declined 80 percent from 200,000 to 36,000 acres.
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