February 11, 2015 — Every night, a deadly event shadows oysters in what was widely thought to be a safe haven in the Chesapeake Bay.
Low oxygen “dead zones” caused by nutrient pollution show up every night in shallow waters near the shores of creeks and rivers, according to a new study released Wednesday by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
Research shows dead zones plaguing waters as low as 20 feet, but little is known about their presence at night near the water’s edge, and their impact on oysters.
Oysters fight to breathe, and that struggle compromises their immune systems long enough to make them vulnerable to the attack of a second nemesis, a disease called dermo.
This troubling finding could be one of the reasons behind why small-scale — but pricey — efforts by Virginia and Maryland to restock the bay’s decimated oyster population failed in years past, marine scientists said, and why today’s larger-scale efforts to seed huge reefs with tens of thousands of young oysters could require a closer watch.
Read the full story from The Washington Post