Delaware State University and the Center for the Inland Bays officials are currently formalizing a plan to expand the center’s oyster restoration program in the inland bays, according to those working on the program. They did not release exact figures, however, because of some early haziness regarding the commitment and because the DelState official working closely with them is still out of the country.
John Ewart, a University of Delaware aquaculture scientist who with the center runs the oyster gardening program, and center Executive Director Ed Lewandowski, did express optimism about the recent talks.
“It’s looking promising,” Lewandowski said. “We’re trying to formalize a working agreement.” But, unveiling early uncertainty, he added, “I don’t know what it means in terms of funding for the center.”
An $11,000 National Fish and Wildlife Grant in 2003 helped initiate the program, which has attempted to promote oyster restoration in the area. It has since survived on a budget funded by Sussex County and Fenwick Island governments, the center and personal contributions. But that budget has not exceeded $15,000.
Restoring the filter-feeding shellfish to the waters could improve water quality and underwater ecological habitat. But to have an overreaching impact on pollution control or industry, the program would require a lot more help than even DelState could provide, officials have noted.
At least $2.5 million has been spent on restoration efforts in the Delaware Bay. In an even larger commitment, the State of Maryland spends about $5 million annually on oyster restoration but still has yet to see major improvement. Disease, there and in the Delaware Inland Bays, is also still a deterrent for growing oyster populations.
Money available at DelState, however, could dramatically increase funding for the program, providing money for supplies, operations and two college graduate students to work on oyster research in the inland bays. It could also help communicate what officials working on the program believe to be true: that oysters can succeed and have a positive impact in the inland bays, the main goal of the program.
“They want to direct the efforts into the work we’ve been doing. It’s a positive step,” Ewart said. “The question is what do you get and how is it going to work? That’s what we’re working on right now.”
Buzz Henifin, a Fenwick Island resident and former town council member who has been fervently promoting the program since its inception, said he hopes potential extra support becomes a reality.
“I think that’s a fantastic thing to continue the work to clean up the bays,” Henifin said. “Anything we get form anybody to further the oyster program is just an acknowledgement that the bays need some cleaning. The CIB has been doing a good job.”
Center officials normally provide volunteers who “garden” the shellfish with pinky-nail-size oyster spats in the beginning of the summer to grow in floats in the area’s canals and the open waters off bayside properties. Officials working on the project said they bring in about 50,000 to 100,000 oyster spats each year. They then plant them in several locations across the inland bays in the fall, where they continue to grow.
Scientists estimate that one full-grown oyster can filter 50 gallons of water each day. Like clams and shellfish, oysters feed on microscopic plants and suspended particles in the water, removing excess nutrients that lead to low oxygen levels, an unhealthy ecological environment and fish kills.
That process also improves the water clarity. Submerged vegetation benefits from a healthy oyster population because more sunlight can reach a waterway’s floor and stimulate its growth, according to officials and information available at http://darc.cms.udel.edu/ibog/.
Experts also call oysters a “keystone” species — the center of the bays’ underwater habitat. Oyster reefs provide a habitat for smaller species, such as worms and grass shrimp, which support populations of crabs, fish and other, larger predators, according to the aforementioned Web site.
Faculty and students involved in the young aquaculture research center at DelState study American eel, Atlantic sturgeon, weakfish, juvenile sandbar shark, phytoplankton and algae — which grows harmfully and uncontrollably in Delaware’s inland bays because of excess nutrients and helps cause the low oxygen levels.
Students and faculty there also study shellfish such as mussels and, not surprisingly, oysters. Patrick Erbland, a graduate student who is researching oysters’ ecological benefit on underwater habitat and who worked with center officials last summer, agreed with others, saying support from the university could help promote the value of large-scale oyster restoration in the area.
“I think that that sounds great,” Erbland said of the prospect of further DelState support. “(Oysters) are the sort of anchor that brings everything else together. DelState is a growing program and we’re trying to find a niche in research in the state. Oyster (research) seems to be a big part of that.”