Comments due December 4, 2002
The Chesapeake Bay Program is accepting public comments on its draft Comprehensive Oyster Plan for Chesapeake Bay, which fulfills an important commitment in the Chesapeake 2000 Bay Agreement that calls for developing a strategy to increase native Bay oysters tenfold by 2010 and help improve water quality. This draft is the result of a nearly three-year collaborative process that began with a workshop in January 2000 that CBF helped facilitate. At the workshop, Bay scientists, resource managers, watermen, and other interested parties reached consensus on several key oyster restoration issues that serve as the basis for this plan.
The plan is a significant step forward for native oyster restoration and could serve as a blueprint for oyster restoration in other waterways throughout the U.S. The plan replaces both the Oyster Fishery Management Plan and Aquatic Reef Habitat Plan that the Bay Program adopted in 1994. For the first time, essential components of both fishery management and reef restoration are combined in a single plan.
“Most importantly from CBF’s perspective, the plan institutionalizes the need for a network of reef sanctuaries throughout the Bay as an important tool for restoring both the oyster fishery and the oyster’s important ecological role in the Bay system,” said CBF Senior Scientist Bill Goldsborough. "The plan provides Bay-wide guidance for oyster management, a challenging task given the complex issues involved.”
The draft plan is not a traditional fishery management plan with hard targets for fishing harvests and precisely defined tasks. It attempts to consolidate current knowledge about oysters, make recommendations for management, and instill a measure of discipline and direction in oyster restoration. The Bay Program intends to update the plan as more information and new approaches emerge in the future.
“CBF supports the draft plan, and we encourage interested parties to review it and provide comments to the Bay Program by the December 4 deadline,” said Goldsborough. “Public feedback is a reality check of sorts that can only help improve the draft plan.”
Click on this link to view the plan and provide comments.
Posted: 11-20-2002
