Life Sciences Commons^™

Oyster Reef Broodstock Enhancement In The Great Wicomico River, Virginia, Melissa Southworth, Roger L. Mann

VIMS Articles

The Great Wicomico River is a small, trap-type estuary on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay that once supported substantial oyster populations. These populations were essentially eliminated by the combined effects of Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972, and subsequent disease mortalities related to Perkinsus marinus and Haplosporidium nelsoni. Oyster broodstock enhancement was initiated in June 1996 by the construction of a three-dimensional intertidal reef with oyster shell, followed by the "seeding," in December 1996, of that reef with high densities of large oysters from disease-challenged populations in Pocomoke and Tangier Sound. Calculations of estimated fecundity of the reef population …