ARLINGTON Last year, scientists, state officials, watermen, and conservationists in Virginia provided a sound set of actions for restoring native oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. Similarly, Maryland's Oyster Advisory Commission recently is sued its interim report with recommended actions for the state to improve native oyster populations. Both groups are helping chart a new course toward successful native oyster restoration.

One significant advance from past efforts is the current panels' acknowledgment that separate management approaches will be required to improve ecosystem health and provide fishery benefits. Clearly, both states need dramatically new and persistent investments to reverse the native oyster's decline. Our best hope for improving ecosystem health lies in expanding restoration to an appropriate scale, one that allows our native oysters to perform their natural services. These benefits extend beyond oyster fisheries to include filtering water and providing habitat for many other Bay species.

Both states are considering additional management actions that would help oysters develop natural tolerances to devastating diseases that have reduced populations in recent years. For example, scientists believe closing the lower Rappahannock River to harvest for more than a decade resulted in more resilient oysters. This action -- a river-specific moratorium -- is exactly the kind of management decision under discussion in Maryland, and it shows we don't need to close every river to achieve success with native oysters.

EXAGGERATIONS abound about the Maryland commission's interim report and a potential moratorium on oyster harvesting in Maryland's portion of the Bay. However, the report clearly states that "an opportunity for a well-managed public fishery . . . would still be available," although "the greatest opportunity for expanding the economic production of oysters in Maryland is through privatization and aquaculture." The state would likely need to facilitate opportunities for watermen to transition to aquaculture and to establish a system of privately leased oyster bars. Similarly, the Virginia panel's report recognizes the short-term needs of watermen and the oyster industry.

With the decline of our native oysters, some in the Chesapeake Bay community have looked to a species of non-native Asian oyster (Crassostrea ariakensis) as a "silver bullet" for rebuilding the bay's oyster fishery.

The Nature Conservancy recently released a scientific assessment of marine invasive species around the globe, which found that 84 percent of the world's ecosystems have been infiltrated by invasive species. The Bay's native oysters suffered in part to a non-native parasite called MSX, which scientists believe came to the Bay through the introduction of the Pacific oyster from Asia in the 1930s. Compared with land invasions, marine invasive species are much more difficult to monitor and control. Once established, they are difficult if not impossible to remove.

THE BEST available science cannot yet predict the impact of introducing Asian oysters. In its 2004 report, the National Research Council of the National Academies concludes, "It is not possible to predict if a controlled introduction of reproductive C. ariakensis will improve, further degrade, or have no impact on either the oyster fishery or the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay."

Recent research also reveals that, while the Asian oyster may be resistant to MSX and Dermo, it is highly susceptible to other diseases to which our native oyster apparently is immune -- diseases likely to spread to the Chesapeake Bay.

With a native oyster that works, we can avoid the risks of introducing yet another non-native species. According to Dr. Mark Luckenbach, a top scientist with the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, innovative aquaculture techniques are allowing our native Chesapeake Bay oysters to survive as well as other species in every other major oyster industry on the planet. This success is a result of industry investments spurred by initial funding from the commonwealth.

Moreover, little can be achieved without adequately addressing water-quality problems, to which the Asian oyster also is vulnerable.

It took centuries of overfishing, water-quality degradation, and disease to push the Bay's oysters to the breaking point. Before we abandon hope for the native oyster, we must make investments in restoration that acknowledge and address the scale of our problem.
Mark Bryer is the director of The Nature Conservancy's Chesapeake Bay Initiative, and serves as a member of the Maryland Oyster Advisory Commission. Contact him at mbryer@tnc.org.