Almost every environmental problem is related to human overpopulation. The present population of 7,000,000,000 is not sustainable yet many religions and some governments are encouraging more growth!!! The population of the USA has more than doubled in my lifetime. What really sucks is that the government encouraged family planning and it worked in getting americans to have less children. BUT the government is encouraging immigration so that our population continues to explode...go figure.
Draft plan for Chesapeake Bay
- Thread starter Cpt. Jon
- Start date
- Status
IMHO the best approach is all of the notions.
But as the commercial says "...just do it".
We all know nitrogen runoff from overdeveloped land is the the primary culprit.
course, you should not pump overboard, but you probably do. don't want the boat to smell, besides, everybody else does it. we need government and private sector action. it is decades overdue. what burns my butt is the waste of time and money used to try to fix the problem when what we need is to temporarily stop overfishing/crabbing and oxygenate the water. i don't care whether i bubble and you pump deep water to the top. i have no problem if weirs are put on West River and bubbler boats cruise the Choptank and the Susquehanna has a series of weirs and the Severn has something else and the Potomac an entirely other thing. matters not. all you guys in the delmarva, stop using lawn fertilizer. that should do it, except what about Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Harrisburg, Scranton, et al. we have given our time and money and will continue to do so to those who want the holistic approach to cleaning the bay. i am advocating an ad hoc (oops, sounds lawyery) approach. if someone falls overboard, you don't save them with a training seminar nor do you write him off and just save the future people. the bay needs cleaning NOW and needs to be kept clean.
my 2 cents
"I think we're all Bozos on this bus."
But as the commercial says "...just do it".
We all know nitrogen runoff from overdeveloped land is the the primary culprit.
course, you should not pump overboard, but you probably do. don't want the boat to smell, besides, everybody else does it. we need government and private sector action. it is decades overdue. what burns my butt is the waste of time and money used to try to fix the problem when what we need is to temporarily stop overfishing/crabbing and oxygenate the water. i don't care whether i bubble and you pump deep water to the top. i have no problem if weirs are put on West River and bubbler boats cruise the Choptank and the Susquehanna has a series of weirs and the Severn has something else and the Potomac an entirely other thing. matters not. all you guys in the delmarva, stop using lawn fertilizer. that should do it, except what about Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Harrisburg, Scranton, et al. we have given our time and money and will continue to do so to those who want the holistic approach to cleaning the bay. i am advocating an ad hoc (oops, sounds lawyery) approach. if someone falls overboard, you don't save them with a training seminar nor do you write him off and just save the future people. the bay needs cleaning NOW and needs to be kept clean.
my 2 cents
"I think we're all Bozos on this bus."
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'nother thing, would seem you have less to consider pumping air into the water.
pumping deep water up to the surface requires resolution of intake issues.
marine life, clogs, etc.
"Some say the glass is half empty; others half full. I say it's twice as big as it needs to be."
pumping deep water up to the surface requires resolution of intake issues.
marine life, clogs, etc.
"Some say the glass is half empty; others half full. I say it's twice as big as it needs to be."
Shooter it would take a lot of air pumps to make a difference!!! But I agree that action is better than apathy and inaction.
Agricultural Contributions
My cousin was the last dairy farmer in our family. His farm was in Columbia County, NY (east of the Hudson River). At least 15 years ago we were talking (I have my BS in agricultural engineering and used to work with farmers who used sewage sludge as fertilizer) about manure management. He said he had farmer friends across the Hudson who were in the Susquehanna drainage basin and they had been required to implement Best Management Practices for their manure to minimize negative impacts on the Chesapeake. For example, manure could not be spread on frozen soil to minimize runoff into streams due to rainfall or snowmelt.
We haven't spoken of this subject in years and my cousin has since sold his herd - the Lord knows a family farmer can't survive in the dairy business today. My point is that at least some consideration has been given to the agricultural impacts on the Chesapeake watershed for a number of years now. I wonder if this report acknowledges and/or attempts to quantify the benefits due to implementation of these BMPs.
My cousin was the last dairy farmer in our family. His farm was in Columbia County, NY (east of the Hudson River). At least 15 years ago we were talking (I have my BS in agricultural engineering and used to work with farmers who used sewage sludge as fertilizer) about manure management. He said he had farmer friends across the Hudson who were in the Susquehanna drainage basin and they had been required to implement Best Management Practices for their manure to minimize negative impacts on the Chesapeake. For example, manure could not be spread on frozen soil to minimize runoff into streams due to rainfall or snowmelt.
We haven't spoken of this subject in years and my cousin has since sold his herd - the Lord knows a family farmer can't survive in the dairy business today. My point is that at least some consideration has been given to the agricultural impacts on the Chesapeake watershed for a number of years now. I wonder if this report acknowledges and/or attempts to quantify the benefits due to implementation of these BMPs.
Re: Agricultural Contributions
I believe that there is a tipping point in terms of animals per acre or people per acre beyond which waste management should be required. Hog farms with 30,000 animals should be required to manage waste with the same controls as a city of 30,000 people. A small farm can get along with looser guidelines. I have often wondered if there were more waterfowl on the Chesapeake Bay before the European invasion than there are chickens today. There have been many examples of a balance between very large numbers of birds fouling the water and very large stocks of fish the feed in the plankton nourished by the waste dropped by the birds. The commercial fishers harvested the fish and distroyed the food supply for the birds . The birds left the region and took their waste with them, the plankton failed and the fish were gone. There was no reason for the birds to return. A once productive piece of the ocean became a wasteland.
I believe that there is a tipping point in terms of animals per acre or people per acre beyond which waste management should be required. Hog farms with 30,000 animals should be required to manage waste with the same controls as a city of 30,000 people. A small farm can get along with looser guidelines. I have often wondered if there were more waterfowl on the Chesapeake Bay before the European invasion than there are chickens today. There have been many examples of a balance between very large numbers of birds fouling the water and very large stocks of fish the feed in the plankton nourished by the waste dropped by the birds. The commercial fishers harvested the fish and distroyed the food supply for the birds . The birds left the region and took their waste with them, the plankton failed and the fish were gone. There was no reason for the birds to return. A once productive piece of the ocean became a wasteland.
ross in nature nutrients get recycled. Sure the birds pooped but they pooped out what they ate locally. Now the chickens are eating grains grown using fertilizers in Kansas or somewhere and then all of the food is shipped to the chicken lots. No recycling but a forcing of man made Nitrogen from Kansas to the Chesapeake. The leftover nitrogen goes down the Mississippi to pollute the GOM and the chicken poop goes into the Chesapeake directly and the chickens go into the chesapeake via our guts and our poop. Chickens raised on a small scale probably have little negative effects nor do pigs or cows. It is the food brought in that causes most of the problems.
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/nspills.asp
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/nspills.asp
Moon . Not quite . Most of the chicken feed consumed on the delmarva is grown on the delmarva and fertilized with animal manure. Most of the menhadin caught from the Chesapeake are converted into meal for the chicken and industrial oils for paints and other uses. The result is we are over fishing the bay while still supplying it with nutrients. We are maintaining an artificial population of fowl but removing the balancing factors. Not only here but all around the country. Channeling the delta lets the silt from the river flow out to sea rather than being deposited in the delta, the result is the delta is shrinking. We have rivers that were major shipping routes on the Chesapeake that are silted to the point of not passing sail boats except at high tide.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/aug99/chicken1.htm
Ross according to this report most of the corn fed to the chickens comes from the midwest...Maybe Kansas is too far west but it is not locally grown. Applying sewage to the soil works well up to an extent. The soil can be overloaded. There are bacteria that will remove nitrogen and phosphorus but ti requires sewage treatment which costs money.
Ross according to this report most of the corn fed to the chickens comes from the midwest...Maybe Kansas is too far west but it is not locally grown. Applying sewage to the soil works well up to an extent. The soil can be overloaded. There are bacteria that will remove nitrogen and phosphorus but ti requires sewage treatment which costs money.
so meantime, how's 'bout some bubblers?
http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/environ.htm
...When in the 1980's it was decided that the cost of improving London's sewerage system to eliminate the problem of these CSOs could not at that time be justified and that excessive disruption would arise, alternative solutions had to be found. It transpired that the direct injection of oxygen into the River at the right time and at the right place was the only practicable solution.
The Thames Vitality
Consequently, in 1989 a purpose built vessel,the 'Thames Bubbler' came into operation. It injects up to 30 tonnes of oxygen per day directly into the River at the appropriate time and place. It is 50.5 metres long and 10 metres wide. It cost £3.5 million to build and costs around a £0.25 million a year to operate. A new oxygenation vessel, the 'Thames Vitality' with the same capacity as the 'Thames Bubbler' was launched in 1997. Both these vessels are owned and operated by Thames Water Utilities as part of an operating agreement with the Environment Agency and can be deployed within a few hours notice if it appears likely that oxygen levels will fall to critical levels. The vessels were deployed on 24 days in 2000, 30 days in 2001, 48 days in 2002, 25 days in 2003 and 29 days in 2004.
In addition to these two vessels, two installations have been built, one at Barnes sewage treatment works and the other at Pimlico pumping station, which store hydrogen peroxide which is released into the River as an additional oxygenation source as and when necessary.
Until the final solution to this problem is agreed, the current mitigation procedures will continue.
http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/environ.htm
...When in the 1980's it was decided that the cost of improving London's sewerage system to eliminate the problem of these CSOs could not at that time be justified and that excessive disruption would arise, alternative solutions had to be found. It transpired that the direct injection of oxygen into the River at the right time and at the right place was the only practicable solution.
Consequently, in 1989 a purpose built vessel,the 'Thames Bubbler' came into operation. It injects up to 30 tonnes of oxygen per day directly into the River at the appropriate time and place. It is 50.5 metres long and 10 metres wide. It cost £3.5 million to build and costs around a £0.25 million a year to operate. A new oxygenation vessel, the 'Thames Vitality' with the same capacity as the 'Thames Bubbler' was launched in 1997. Both these vessels are owned and operated by Thames Water Utilities as part of an operating agreement with the Environment Agency and can be deployed within a few hours notice if it appears likely that oxygen levels will fall to critical levels. The vessels were deployed on 24 days in 2000, 30 days in 2001, 48 days in 2002, 25 days in 2003 and 29 days in 2004.
In addition to these two vessels, two installations have been built, one at Barnes sewage treatment works and the other at Pimlico pumping station, which store hydrogen peroxide which is released into the River as an additional oxygenation source as and when necessary.
Until the final solution to this problem is agreed, the current mitigation procedures will continue.
Shooter by way of contrast, the Thames River is 215 miles long and drains a water shed of 5914 square miles. The Susquehanna River is 444 miles long and drains 27,500 square miles then the Chesapeake bay is another 175 miles long and is fed by an additional 58 named rivers and many smaller tributaries. Where as a couple of bubbler ships might serve for the Thames River it would require a fleet of a hundred or more to serve the Chesapeake. There are similar oxygen depleted zones in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the southern states.
Uhm, Ross, I think we all know that America is bigger than England!
Seriously, you're right, it would take a lot more bubblers. It seems to me that the real question is the validity of the concept and the operation and whether or not it works, not how many will be required.
Seriously, you're right, it would take a lot more bubblers. It seems to me that the real question is the validity of the concept and the operation and whether or not it works, not how many will be required.
Ross,
Lest there be any misunderstanding, I am not wedded to "bubblers". I DO know that remediating the sources of polution is far better. Would love it if NY, PA, MD, DC, VA, WV and any I might have missed would work together in perfect harmony to improve and maintain the quality of the bay. I'm being playful but not mocking anyone, btw. I think Marylanders should resolve that from Havre de Grace to Point Lookout, she's ours. That distance is not so great. It does include a lot of problems but it is a manageable area. We should focus on what are the full range of options available. I don't eat seafood so a moratorium on oystering or crabbing is an easy fix for me to recommend but we do need to solve the decline of oysters in the bay. They would help. As I'm sure you know from reading my posts to Peggie Hall, the Headmistress, I have a stinky boat because I use a holding tank. I dare say that most of the old time sailors I've spoken to on the bay, indicate they pump overboard. We have done a lot to cleanup the highways from what they were in our youth. Riverkeepers help manage local efforts to improve the waterways as they've never done before. The Annacostia river at the Navy Yard is looking grand. I am actually able to say that, honestly. Much work and money went into the cleanup. Nesting pairs of bald eagles now live on its banks. At the Woodrow Wilson bridge on 495/95, drivers sometimes witness eagles in flight. I have at rush hour. The Potomac river is rated a top large mouth bass source by Bass magazine. The West/Rhode Riverkeeper with his "Honeydipper" is free to me to use to pumpout. Efforts are being made from Maine to California, but what more can be done? Maybe if my marina put coy pond bubblers at the slips on the Rhode, the fish kill on the Rhode might be a little less than the year before. Maybe they could use solar, wind and hydro power so no fossil fuel is necessary. Maybe if I were to rig something that pumps air into the water around my boat as I'm on the bay, a few fish would be able to catch a breath. As Marylanders, we know that disturbing the bottom of the waterways may have unintended consequences. The Riverkeepers have said the building of bulkheads on the rivers and bay are contributing to the problem. Boaters and marinas need bulkheads. We need a solution. Any thoughts?
Lest there be any misunderstanding, I am not wedded to "bubblers". I DO know that remediating the sources of polution is far better. Would love it if NY, PA, MD, DC, VA, WV and any I might have missed would work together in perfect harmony to improve and maintain the quality of the bay. I'm being playful but not mocking anyone, btw. I think Marylanders should resolve that from Havre de Grace to Point Lookout, she's ours. That distance is not so great. It does include a lot of problems but it is a manageable area. We should focus on what are the full range of options available. I don't eat seafood so a moratorium on oystering or crabbing is an easy fix for me to recommend but we do need to solve the decline of oysters in the bay. They would help. As I'm sure you know from reading my posts to Peggie Hall, the Headmistress, I have a stinky boat because I use a holding tank. I dare say that most of the old time sailors I've spoken to on the bay, indicate they pump overboard. We have done a lot to cleanup the highways from what they were in our youth. Riverkeepers help manage local efforts to improve the waterways as they've never done before. The Annacostia river at the Navy Yard is looking grand. I am actually able to say that, honestly. Much work and money went into the cleanup. Nesting pairs of bald eagles now live on its banks. At the Woodrow Wilson bridge on 495/95, drivers sometimes witness eagles in flight. I have at rush hour. The Potomac river is rated a top large mouth bass source by Bass magazine. The West/Rhode Riverkeeper with his "Honeydipper" is free to me to use to pumpout. Efforts are being made from Maine to California, but what more can be done? Maybe if my marina put coy pond bubblers at the slips on the Rhode, the fish kill on the Rhode might be a little less than the year before. Maybe they could use solar, wind and hydro power so no fossil fuel is necessary. Maybe if I were to rig something that pumps air into the water around my boat as I'm on the bay, a few fish would be able to catch a breath. As Marylanders, we know that disturbing the bottom of the waterways may have unintended consequences. The Riverkeepers have said the building of bulkheads on the rivers and bay are contributing to the problem. Boaters and marinas need bulkheads. We need a solution. Any thoughts?
Shooter, consider a wake wave driven bobbler. It would consist of a long, deep spar bouy with a sliding float coupled to a piston that would push compressed air out the bottom of the spar. Wave action on the surface would move the float but inertia would hold the spar steady.
if everyone does something, the summ of all those little actions will make a noticeable differrence.
Jon and I got our oysters, we don't fertilize our lawn, don't dump into the bay, grow veggies, we help at the biyearly neighborhood cleanup etc. ... it's all small stuff but I like to believe that it does make a difference
Jon and I got our oysters, we don't fertilize our lawn, don't dump into the bay, grow veggies, we help at the biyearly neighborhood cleanup etc. ... it's all small stuff but I like to believe that it does make a difference
Cpt Jon,
did not mean to hijack your thread. thank you for starting it and posting the link.
you seem to have dropped out of the discussion. as you now know, i have a lot say. not my thread, though. please rejoin the conversation.
thank you
did not mean to hijack your thread. thank you for starting it and posting the link.
you seem to have dropped out of the discussion. as you now know, i have a lot say. not my thread, though. please rejoin the conversation.
thank you
Oxygen Supply
Adding oxygen to the water is one thing. Getting the oxygen dissolved into the water is another. It is the oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE) that is most important. When we design sewage treatment plants the actual oxygen transfer efficiency is well under 20%.
In essence, after calculating the quantity of oxygen needed to raise the dissolved oxygen concentration to a reasonable level - maybe 4 or 5 mg/l, 5 times that much oxygen must be supplied. Not an inexpensive prospect . . .
Adding oxygen to the water is one thing. Getting the oxygen dissolved into the water is another. It is the oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE) that is most important. When we design sewage treatment plants the actual oxygen transfer efficiency is well under 20%.
In essence, after calculating the quantity of oxygen needed to raise the dissolved oxygen concentration to a reasonable level - maybe 4 or 5 mg/l, 5 times that much oxygen must be supplied. Not an inexpensive prospect . . .
Oh, please keep the discussion alive! I have not dropped out, just listened. I definitely like to see so many people speaking their thoughts on the issue. I didn't think anyone was hijacking the thread!
I would 100% support a moratorium on the taking of the most important fish/shellfish in the Bay (for at least a year). It has been argued that a one year moratorium on Crabbing would allow the population to grow to an acceptable level. I would also support a moratorium on harvesting wild oysters from the bay. Most watermen that used to harvest oysters have (or are) given up on it... there just isn't that much left. Those with commercial licenses to harvest oysters should be given leases on areas of their local waters to grow and harvest "farmed" oysters. The only difference is that they don't have to search for the oysters anymore and they must tend to their "crop" about once a week to keep them from attaching to each other. This would leave the wild oyster population to replenish itself. The addition of more spat (baby oysters) produced by the "farmed" oysters will also help. A significant reduction in the amount of Menhaden allowed to be harvested is also a great idea.
As many of you guys/gals have said we have taken links out of the chain that has been the natural balance of the ecosystem, the question is how do we attempt to make it better without an adverse effect in the opposite direction. It's easy for me to say stop all commercial fishing as I can go catch crabs or whatever right in the backyard. I love seafood, and I love eating my catch, but I have only steamed up about a dozen crabs this year because I feel like I should let them reproduce. I NEVER eat females (even though I do think that they taste better). Yesterday, there was a HUGE Jimmy in my oyster float and I pulled him out with a crab net, I thought 'mmm... you look tastey' but then decided I would let him go and watched him swim off. Crabs and several other fish eat oysters (and other bivalves) so a continued effort to restore the number of crab is extremely important, but it should be equaled or bettered by the effort to restore the eastern oyster. An increase in these efforts will also result in a natural increase in the number of predator fish such as the Striped Bass, Blue Fish, Spanish Makeral, Flounder, etc.
To continue to "manage" the allowable amounts to be taken out of the bay by limiting it to just enough to avoid certain collapse of the fishery is not responsible, nor sustainable. In the last couple of years, I have experimented with the aquaculture of oysters at home and I demonstrated how incredibly easy it is to "farm raise" oysters in the bay waters. If I had the means, and perhaps in the future I will, I would be an oyster "farmer", it's sustainable farming.
All points about low levels of oxygen, farm and fertilizer runoff, etc are spot on and efforts to correct this should be continued. People like their pork or other meats and produce etc (I have a pork shoulder on the smoker right now) but we have to learn to do these things with less impact to our environment.
Like I said above, I don't consider anyone speaking to this topic to be hijacking the thread, it's exactly the discussion I was hoping to hear.
Cpt Jon,
In all the discussions and all, I forgot to ask. How clean is the water where the oysters are? How is the whole thing goin'? If you already said how it's doing in an earlier posting, please forgive as I'm not real bright.
Thanks!
In all the discussions and all, I forgot to ask. How clean is the water where the oysters are? How is the whole thing goin'? If you already said how it's doing in an earlier posting, please forgive as I'm not real bright.
Thanks!
Tough question on "how clean is the water where the oysters are?". I don't think that it's bad, it could be better. I have no problems with eating fish or shellfish out of the local waters or from just behind the house. I am attaching a picture and you can see that we are located almost straight across the bay from the mouth of the bay and it "flushes" twice. After I wrote my reply the other day, I went down to the oysters and grabbed a couple and threw them on the smoker (which I was smoking a pork shoulder on) directly above the heat and ate my first oysters of the season, they were very healthy looking, plump and tasty. Not quite as salty as oysters from the Eastern Shore (Atlantic Side) but still had a bit of saltiness to them. One had a little oyster crab inside, they live inside the shells with the oysters but do not eat/kill the oysters. I was told by the company that I get my oyster seed from that they are a sign of good salinity. Oyster crabs are considered a delicacy for real oyster lovers (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F07E5D6133FE633A2575AC0A9679D946296D6CF). The higher salinity in our area indicates (to me) that a good amount of "flushing" action takes place with the waters in our area with "fresh" ocean water so I do think that the water quality is pretty good here, up the rivers not so much I would think.
Anyway, the oysters tasted great! Eating them was as much a "Test of their healthiness" as a treat... I might have to start testing on a more frequent basis. Nice thing about them being where they are is that if I am already grilling or something, I can just go grab a couple and throw them on the grill (my favorite way to eat them). If I bother to shuck them (for company usually) I put a little garlic and parmesan on them and then grill them, otherwise they taste great in their own juices. Because of the condition of the Bay I typically do not eat them raw, though I have and probably will again, but it is not often and is usually in December when there is significantly less activity on the bay (this may be more of a mental thing though). I plan on buying several thousand more seed next month.
Maybe I could do a wiki or something on oyster gardening if there isn't one out there already, but I am not an expert. All of my knowledge on the subject has either been learned from the internet, the company I buy the oysters from, or just trying it out and seeing what works. When I was researching how to do this, it seemed that though there is information out there, I had a hard time finding a lot of more technical or scientific information. A very good resource to start is http://www.deq.virginia.gov/coastal/gardening.html
Disease is something I would like to know more about. I think there are really two primary diseases that are detrimental to the oyster population (MSX and Dermo) I think they are actually parasites, not disease and from what I understand, they will wipe out entire populations of oysters. I think that "planting" oyster seed in the colder months is recommended because MSX and Dermo are not prevalent in those months and it give the oysters time to adjust to their location and strengthen, whereas planting in the warmer months when the oysters are using their energy to reproduce increases their vulnerability to the parasites. Both MSX and Dermo are not harmful to humans.
I would also like to know what the normal mortality rate of oysters should be out of say 1000 count. I get some dead ones, not at a terrible rate, and probably more due to having too many in each cage and they must compete for food, but I do wonder about Dermo and MSX. Ross said something about hoping that by letting oysters mature and reproduce perhaps the population would become more resilient to the diseases (seems to be working with MSX, but not yet with Dermo). Good reading on the topic that I went to as writing this: http://www.deq.virginia.gov/coastal/documents/referencea.pdf
Sorry for writing so much, wonder if anyone really cared to read through all of this. It's just near and dear and I really do feel that improving the condition of the Bay depends on many things, but restoration of the Oyster population is a key component and one must not sacrifice enjoying eating oysters to accomplish it. I am not a biologist, but if I knew then what I knew now, I might have pursued that course of study in my younger years. I often times think about raising oysters as my retirement job. I'll try to take some pictures of them this weekend if anyone wants and post them. I would think that those with boats slipped at a marina could do something similar in their slip, but I would worry about someone taking them so a little obscurity would be prudent. I made my floats and cages myself and there is no reason that it needs to float, so if a cage was suspended or resting on a hard bottom or some sort of support to keep it from sinking in muck would be fine and keep them out of view. Below is that picture showing where our oysters are raised and it's relation to the mouth of the bay for salinity and water condition (flushing of the bay).
Anyway, the oysters tasted great! Eating them was as much a "Test of their healthiness" as a treat... I might have to start testing on a more frequent basis
. Nice thing about them being where they are is that if I am already grilling or something, I can just go grab a couple and throw them on the grill (my favorite way to eat them). If I bother to shuck them (for company usually) I put a little garlic and parmesan on them and then grill them, otherwise they taste great in their own juices. Because of the condition of the Bay I typically do not eat them raw, though I have and probably will again, but it is not often and is usually in December when there is significantly less activity on the bay (this may be more of a mental thing though). I plan on buying several thousand more seed next month.Maybe I could do a wiki or something on oyster gardening if there isn't one out there already, but I am not an expert. All of my knowledge on the subject has either been learned from the internet, the company I buy the oysters from, or just trying it out and seeing what works. When I was researching how to do this, it seemed that though there is information out there, I had a hard time finding a lot of more technical or scientific information. A very good resource to start is http://www.deq.virginia.gov/coastal/gardening.html
Disease is something I would like to know more about. I think there are really two primary diseases that are detrimental to the oyster population (MSX and Dermo) I think they are actually parasites, not disease and from what I understand, they will wipe out entire populations of oysters. I think that "planting" oyster seed in the colder months is recommended because MSX and Dermo are not prevalent in those months and it give the oysters time to adjust to their location and strengthen, whereas planting in the warmer months when the oysters are using their energy to reproduce increases their vulnerability to the parasites. Both MSX and Dermo are not harmful to humans.
I would also like to know what the normal mortality rate of oysters should be out of say 1000 count. I get some dead ones, not at a terrible rate, and probably more due to having too many in each cage and they must compete for food, but I do wonder about Dermo and MSX. Ross said something about hoping that by letting oysters mature and reproduce perhaps the population would become more resilient to the diseases (seems to be working with MSX, but not yet with Dermo). Good reading on the topic that I went to as writing this: http://www.deq.virginia.gov/coastal/documents/referencea.pdf
Sorry for writing so much, wonder if anyone really cared to read through all of this. It's just near and dear and I really do feel that improving the condition of the Bay depends on many things, but restoration of the Oyster population is a key component and one must not sacrifice enjoying eating oysters to accomplish it. I am not a biologist, but if I knew then what I knew now, I might have pursued that course of study in my younger years. I often times think about raising oysters as my retirement job. I'll try to take some pictures of them this weekend if anyone wants and post them. I would think that those with boats slipped at a marina could do something similar in their slip, but I would worry about someone taking them so a little obscurity would be prudent. I made my floats and cages myself and there is no reason that it needs to float, so if a cage was suspended or resting on a hard bottom or some sort of support to keep it from sinking in muck would be fine and keep them out of view. Below is that picture showing where our oysters are raised and it's relation to the mouth of the bay for salinity and water condition (flushing of the bay).
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