November 17, 2025 — Ten people were arrested earlier this month for alleged immigration violations during a joint state and federal patrol of oyster beds in St. Bernard and Terrebonne parishes.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reported the arrests Nov. 10 following its enforcement efforts with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard. The agencies conducted their operation Nov. 3-4.
September 2, 2025 — There have been more illnesses and deaths from Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria, this year than in previous years in the Southern U.S. state of Louisiana.
The Louisiana Department of Health is urging residents to take precautions to prevent infection from the bacteria, which can cause illness when an open wound is exposed to coastal waters or when a person eats raw or undercooked seafood, particularly oysters.
August 29, 2025 — The Baltimore Oyster Partnership has started off the 2025-26 oyster season by setting a goal of planning 5 million oysters in Baltimore Harbor by the year 2030.
“Every oyster we plant is a step toward a healthier, more vibrant harbor,” Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore President Dan Taylor said in a release. “We’re thrilled to celebrate what’s been accomplished and to look ahead at the millions of oysters – and volunteers – still to come.”
July 31, 2025 — The Gulf of Maine—home to commercial fisheries for oysters, clams and mussels—has unexpectedly avoided an increase in seawater acidity, helping to preserve the health of its fisheries.
“Contrary to expectation,” a team of scientists wrote in a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, we … find that pH has increased (+ 0.2 pH units) over the past 40 years, despite concurrent rising atmospheric CO2.” (Determining the decades-long trend required measurements of boron isotopes within annual skeletal bands built by crustose coralline algae. More about that later.)
The Gulf’s acidity levels are unexpected because atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide continue to climb. And because carbon dioxide is absorbed faster and easier into cold water, the frigid waters of the Gulf would be expected to take in more carbon. More carbon in water generally lowers pH and increases acidity.
“One goes down and the other goes up,” said Alan Wanamaker, an Iowa State University professor of earth, atmosphere, and climate and a paper co-author. “That’s what we’ve seen in the open ocean.”
July 24, 2025 — Two U.S. importers have recalled frozen half-shell oysters from South Korea due to possible contamination with norovirus.
Vernon, California, U.S.A.-based Wang Globalnet recalled 1,200 cases of frozen half-shell oysters labeled “Product of Korea, Pack 144 counts,” with a harvest date of 12 January. This came after the California Department of Public Health notified the company about multiple reported illnesses stemming from the product in the state of Utah, Wang Globalnet said.
February 7, 2025 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning retailers and restaurants not to sell certain oysters that could be contaminated with norovirus after 15 people became ill in Louisiana, U.S.A.
On 5 February, the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) closed an oyster shellfish harvesting area in Area 3 and ordered a recall of all oysters harvested from that area since 10 January 2025. Fifteen people became ill with a norovirus-like illness after eating oysters from Area 3 across several New Orleans, Louisiana, restaurants between 15 and 31 January, the LDH said.
October 31, 2024 — The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will create three new oyster-restoration sanctuaries, continuing the work of the department to restore the historic oyster beds of Chesapeake Bay.
The sites, in Herring Bay, the Nanticoke River, and Hoopers Straight, will build on the success of previous efforts to rebuild the Chesapeake’s oyster population, which once sustained one of the most valuable fisheries in the bay but has since reached historic lows due to decades of overfishing, pollution, and disease.
July 31, 2024 — Cohasset and Scituate were friendly for more than 250 years. Now, the Massachusetts neighbors can’t find common ground. The reason: oysters.
Scituate, a seaside town of fewer than 20,000 people that shares a harbor with the smaller Cohasset, wants to allow oyster farms in its portion of the bay. Cohasset says the farms inhibit swimming and boating.
Political feuds in small-town New England are nothing new. But this one stands out for its stamina—five years and counting—and spite. Five lawsuits have been filed, including one against the Massachusetts attorney general. More than 30 boat moorings have been seized. And a proposed joint sewer system that advocates hoped would stimulate development and clean up waterways? Circling the drain.
Technically the fight is over 3 acres of oyster farms in a more than 250-acre harbor. But for those involved, much more is at stake.
“For Cohasset, it’s about shellfishing. For Scituate, it’s about sovereignty,” said Scituate Town Administrator Jim Boudreau.
“It’s a real failure of government,” Cohasset Select Board member Jack Creighton said of the oyster farms. “We have an opportunity to preserve and protect from privatization and industrialization.”
October 3, 2022 — The following was released by the NOAA:
Alaska’s aquatic farming industry is relatively new—it only became legal in the state in 1988. Since then, the industry has flourished.
Want a meal that’s good for you and good for the planet? Pacific oysters farmed in the United States are a smart seafood choice because they are sustainably grown and harvested under state and federal regulations. Oysters provide environmental benefits by removing excess nutrients and improving water quality. They are low in saturated fat, and excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, and vitamin B12.
Pacific oysters, also called the Japanese oyster, Miyagi oyster, or Pacific cupped oyster, are sustainably farmed in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. They are the most cultivated species of oyster, originally introduced from Asia to 66 countries. They are the only non-indigenous species allowed to be imported to Alaska for cultivation. Pacific oysters take 18 to 30 months to develop to the market size of 70 to 100 grams (2.5 to 3.5 ounces; shell on) live weight. Pacific oyster growth depends on water temperature and salinity.
September 14, 2022 — Back in the spring, Lynnhaven River Now was celebrating its efforts to rebuild the oyster population in one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most developed watersheds.
Undertaking the largest restoration project in its 20-year history, the nonprofit group started by spreading 190 barge-loads of crushed, recycled concrete across the bottom of Pleasure House Creek, one of the Lynnhaven’s tributaries.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Lynnhaven group’s partner on the project, followed up by topping the underwater ridges with a thin layer of shells bearing fingernail-size baby oysters.
“New reefs could support 10 million oysters!” Lynnhaven River Now enthused in an April press release. In all, the two groups planned to create nearly 14 acres of oyster habitat in three separate reefs.
But then waterfront residents began complaining about seeing chunks of asphalt, metal wires and steel rebar mixed in with the concrete being put in the water. A state senator responded by holding public meetings to air residents’ grievances. He pressed authorities to investigate, and in July the Virginia Marine Resources Commission ordered CBF to completely remove everything put in the Lynnhaven so far this year.
The snafu has tarnished the reputation of the two environmental groups, at least in the eyes of some riverfront residents.
“The public confidence in the people who are supposed to be protecting the resources the most, [in other words] Lynnhaven River Now and Chesapeake Bay Foundation, have taken a hit. That’s a polite way of saying it,” said Charles “Chuck” Mehle, a longtime waterfront resident and former community association president who was among the project’s vocal critics.
It’s also roiled other restoration efforts in the Lynnhaven, which is one of five Bay tributaries in Virginia where the state has pledged to complete large-scale revival of oyster habitat by 2025. Waterfront residents are now criticizing plans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create more oyster reefs in the river.