Part 1 - What's an oyster, and is it a good neighbor?

Have you ever seen an oyster? They are not a very glamorous critter, but many folks just love to eat the plump, smooth, grayish mollusks right from their shells! They are considered to be a tasty delicacy by many people.

But this prized treat is not as plentiful as it used to be - in fact almost 99% of all of the Eastern oysters have disappeared from the Chesapeake Bay. That is pretty amazing, considering that a hundred years ago almost 15 million oysters were harvested from the Bay in one year! Those numbers make it seem like everyone in the United States was eating oysters! That's a lot of fried oysters, oysters-on-the-half-shell, and oyster stew!!

"Shucked" oysters and oyster stew.

Where did all of the oysters go? First of all, oysters were just plain overfished - we took so many of them out of the Bay for food that natural reproduction (making baby oysters) just couldn't keep up!

Also, as more and more people have moved to Maryland, the waters of the Bay have become somewhat polluted and full of sediment (dirt). The oysters get smothered by dirt and weakened by polluted waters. The people of Asia also have the same problems in their waters, so their oysters are beginning to suffer, too.

Some hurricanes have brought extra fresh (not salty enough) water and sediment into the Bay. Oysters can't swim away to escape harmful things, so they have had a very hard time surviving.

Lastly, the diseases MSX and Dermo came into the Bay on the bottoms of ships from other places. These diseases kill oysters when they are just big enough for us to eat them. These diseases hurt the oysters, but not people. People aren't hurt by these diseases, even if they eat oysters with the diseases.

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