ANNAPOLIS -- Word that Virginia authorities are considering releasing more than a million nonnative Asian oysters into the Chesapeake Bay this summer has created action in Maryland.

There are renewed calls in the Old Line State to move ahead with the disease-resistant species some see as the only hope of reviving oysters in the Chesapeake.

The Virginia plan also has scientists worried about potential ecological harm caused by experiments with nonnative oysters that have shown promise in resisting diseases that have all but wiped out native oysters.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission on Tuesday endorsed plans for growing 1.3 million of the Chinese oysters, which scientists call the ariakensis oyster.

The Asian oysters would be sterilized to prevent possible reproduction, but some still worry about the potential consequences of placing millions of the new species in the Chesapeake.

The region's waters have been overrun before by invasive species that were once introduced because someone thought they'd assist the native ecology.

Though early tests by Maryland and Virginia show there may be little danger of Asian oysters overrunning native ones, the Virginia plan is getting scrutiny.

"We are very concerned about yet another problem being created unknowingly. This species could be bad for the bay, so it needs to have a careful evaluation," said Mike Fritz, an environmental protection specialist for the Annapolis-based Chesapeake Bay Program, a federal-state partnership charged with overseeing bay restoration efforts.

Maryland researchers already are studying nonnative oysters at a lab on the Eastern Shore. But so far, Maryland has not tried introducing Asian oysters on the scale proposed by Virginia, where the state marine commission, the Army Corps of Engineers and others still must sign off before the oysters could be released.

The group that wants to place the oysters, the Virginia Seafood Council, placed 1 million or so of the Asian oysters last year, but that permit requires all those oysters to be out of the water by June.

"This is not groundbreaking. This is kind of an incremental step forward," said John M.R. Bull, a spokesman for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

Bull said the Asian oysters, if approved, would be placed at several locations in Virginia waters and that "the odds are infinitesimal" one of the oysters could reproduce. Bull said continuing experiments with Asian oysters are key.

"It is not an easy decision. This is not one that will be made lightly. But we need more information to know whether we go ahead or whether we need to step away from the plate," Bull said.

The plan has Maryland watermen calling for speedier testing in Maryland. Larry Simns, head of the Maryland Watermen's Association, said Virginia is leaving Maryland behind and that Maryland needs to stop studying the question and speed introduction of the Asian oyster.

"We're getting left behind," said Simns, who describes the Asian oyster as the best hope of restoring oysters to the Chesapeake, where pollution, disease and overharvesting have nearly wiped them out.

"I'd love for it to be the native oyster that's gonna come back, but we've got to face it -- it's not," Simns said.