Sunday Story: The Mighty Bivalve

Whether or not you’re consuming oysters fried, roasted or on the half-shell, keep in mind one factor: Don’t chuck that shuck! That’s the motto of the Virginia Oyster Shell Recycling Program, sponsored by the VCU Rice Rivers Heart. Due to the statewide effort to gather discarded shells, they’ve returned 80 million oysters to the Piankatank River and Chesapeake Bay within the final 5 years.

From the Nineteen Twenties to the early 2000s, Virginia’s oyster inhabitants skilled a devastating decline, barely surviving myriad threats — from runoff and air pollution to illness and overharvesting. Within the late 1800s, the annual oyster harvest within the Chesapeake Bay peaked at 17 million bushels. A century later, that quantity dropped to only 23,000 bushels.

“The trade practically hit all-time low in 2003, after which Virginia bought its act collectively,” says Todd Janeski, director of the Virginia Oyster Shell Recycling Program. “Restoration efforts like ours, in addition to profitable aquafarming and statewide advertising and marketing campaigns, have helped Virginia oysters make a comeback. Our pre-COVID harvest was as much as about 200,000 bushels.”

Foodies can’t get sufficient of Virginia oysters, which have turn out to be as coveted as Bluepoint and Prince Edward Island varieties.

“Chesapeake Bay is so huge and various that Virginia truly boasts eight oyster areas that produce eight distinctive flavors, starting from actually briny and salty to candy, creamy and buttery,” Janeski says.

Virginia’s oysters are suitable for eating year-round, because of the emergence of aquafarming. “Wild oysters spawn in the summertime and put their power into gamete manufacturing, making the meat skinny,” Janeski explains, “however [farmed] oysters are sterile. They’re nonetheless the identical oyster however with an additional pair of chromosomes — like a seedless watermelon.”

This implies oyster followers can throw out the previous “R” adage, which meant ready till fall — or months ending in “R” — to eat oysters.

“My favourite time to eat an oyster is definitely July,” Janeski says. “You’ll be able to’t beat an ice-cold oyster on a scorching day.”

The rise in Virginia’s oyster inhabitants can be good for the economic system. Virginia is now the biggest oyster producer on the East Coast. Virginia oysters are shipped as distant as China and are actually extra priceless than scallops and crab.

Lengthy earlier than the primary human cracked open a shell, oysters have performed a essential function within the ecosystem. These prehistoric bivalves have been round for 15 million years, filtering as many as 50 gallons of water every day. Oyster reefs additionally shield shorelines from rising sea ranges and storms, and within the Chesapeake Bay alone, they supply houses for crab larvae and 31 species of fish together with striped bass, noticed sea trout and redfish. “They’re very cool critters,” Janeski says. “They not solely construct their very own houses, they’ve all these secondary advantages. They’re ecosystem engineers.”

The lifecycle of an oyster is fascinating. They spend the primary 30 months of their lives as males earlier than transitioning into females. As soon as they spawn, the tiny oyster larvae is free-swimming for about two weeks till it attaches to a tough floor.

“Recycled oyster shells are the right substrate,” Janeski says. “Within the veliger stage, the oyster has a sticky foot that attaches to a shell, after which after simply 17 or 18 days, it begins creating its personal second shell with calcium carbonate. Throughout that course of, it turns into extra anchored and is called spat.”

To make sure the next success price, Janeski’s group purchases oyster larvae from a hatchery, then helps facilitate their attachment to recycled shell. After a number of weeks, when the oyster is safe and the second shell has shaped, volunteers strategically place them right into a sanctuary within the Chesapeake Bay. From there, spat take wherever from 12 to 36 months to become adults.

Whereas VCU’s oysters are usually not for consumption, there are many oysters obtainable from harvesters and farmers, who’ve joined statewide efforts to exchange the shellfish at ratios as excessive as 10-to-1. Janeski says it’s a win-win: The extra oysters eaten and loved, the extra shells return to the bay as new houses for future oysters.

“We encourage shoppers to drop off their oyster shells at considered one of our areas, or just by consuming oysters at considered one of our taking part eating places, you’re serving to our restoration efforts,” Janeski says.

Native eating places taking part within the recycling program embrace Alewife, Birdie’s, Burger Bach Brief Pump, Preventing Fish, Lemaire, Longoven, Postbellum, Shagbark, The Boathouse at Rocketts Touchdown and The Stables at Belmont. For these shucking oysters at residence, drop off empty shells in designated containers at Tuckahoe Seafood, The Diamond and Tuckahoe Landfill.

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