Virginia to start $2 million oyster program for Chesapeake Bay

By April Burbank

Published April 4, 2013 4:00am ET

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Virginia to start $2 million oyster program for Chesapeake Bay — Chesapeake Bay Foundation restoration boat crew volunteers Lloyd Lewis, of Mayo, left, and Ron Tate, of Mayo, right, look through more than three million baby oysters before they were distributed on the Severn River in Annapolis on Thursday October 23, 2008 over recycled concrete from a re-decking project on the Bay Bridge to create the three -acre Asquith Creek Reef. According to a release from the Chesabeake Bay Foundation, old oyster shells serve as the traditional foundation when creating such a reef but the insufficient amounts of shells that exist threaten the restoration of the oyster population. Arianne Teeple/For the Examiner | Arianne Teeple

Virginia will rebuild the Chesapeake Bay oyster population with a its biggest-ever replenishment program, a $2 million initiative beginning in May and continuing through the summer.

The program will spread 1 million bushels of oyster shells on public oyster grounds, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission said Thursday. Naturally occurring oyster larvae will attach to those shells and reach market size in about three years.

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