From Grace:
Dear Mr. Mansfield

Thank your for your willingness to accept and consider comments from the public regarding the introduction of Asian oysters into the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries and estuaries.  Let’s face it:  if you introduce it anywhere within the Bay, it will eventually be everywhere, whether your original specimens are sterile or not.

I attended the USACE presentation on the Eastern Shore and also attended the Lynnhaven River Now organization’s summary of the issue.  Although I am no biologist, I believe I grasp the basics, which are these:

1.  While the Asian oyster is resistant to the two primary diseases which have devastated the native oyster, it is vulnerable to another, equally deleterious disease.  Who is to deny that it also might lose its immunity to the two others it presently resists?

2.  It may contain human pathogens not currently present in the Chesapeake Bay oyster population.

3.  We have no way of knowing how the presence of the Asian oyster will affect current efforts to restore the native oyster population, which, to date, has been encouragingly successful in the Lynnhaven River, at the Southern edge of the Chesapeake Bay basin.  Previous introductions of non-native specie, from spartina grass, to nutria, to kudzu (all for well-intended, beneficial reasons), are cautionary lessons.

There are many other causes for misgivings.  The only reason I can see for this push to introduce the Asian oyster is the desperate plight of the Chesapeake Bay watermen.  Indeed, it is the only reason which supports your consideration.  However, the long-term consequences of failure are too great for all of us, including these fine people.  It would be a better use of funds to use our limited funding to 1) provide temporary employment of these watermen to restore the health of the Bay and/or engage in aquaculture while the native oyster continues to re-establish and 2) continue to fund the native oyster restoration, as you have been doing so admirably.

The Army Corps of Engineers has come a long way since I was a girl who heard at every turn that the USACE did not care about the environment it was impacting.  Today, many of you have become wonderful stewards of our natural resources.

Please keep it up.
Thank you,
Grace Moran
Roanoke Avenue
Virginia Beach, VA 23455