The Corps’ Chesapeake Bay Oyster Restoration Program was authorized by section 704(b) of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 1986 as amended by Section 342. The program was formulated based on coordination and consultation among many project partners and stakeholders, Federal and State resource agencies, watermen, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the academic community and interested citizens, as well as non-profit groups such as Oyster Recovery Partnership, VA Seafood Council, Lynnhaven 2007 and others. The Corps mission is the ecological restoration of the oyster and is focused on increasing the population of native (C. virginica) oysters. As a result, the project will focus the effort on restoring oysters in sanctuaries, free from fishing pressure. Despite this, benefits to the fishery will be substantial. The oyster restoration plan includes the creation of new oyster reefs, rehabilitation of non-productive reefs, development of seed producing reefs, planting of disease resistant seed oysters, and follow-on project monitoring. The use of disease resistant strains of the native oyster such as DEBY, Crossbred, and possibly other disease resistant varieties of the native species will be used, such as field-selected wild Lynnhaven oysters. The Norfolk District has been involved with the program since 2001 and has completed three projects, the Rappahannock River, Tangier/Pocomoke Sound and the Great Wicomico River and will soon be constructing oyster habitat in the Lynnhaven River.

The first oyster restoration project constructed by the Norfolk District Army Corps of Engineers was a small-scale project in the lower Rappahannock River in 2000-2001. Under the authority of Section 510 of WRDA , Norfolk District partnered with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to construct three one-acre sanctuary reefs and approximately 100 acres of harvest flats. This project contributed to a larger reef network in the lower Rappahannock constructed under the Commonwealth’s Virginia Oyster Heritage Program.

The Tangier/Pocomoke Sound project was completed in 2003 and involved the construction of 158 acres of oyster reef habitat and the seeding of 30 million spat on shell. This is the largest single seeding to date for ecosystem restoration within the Commonwealth of Virginia. The total cost for construction, seeding, and monitoring of this project to date is approximately $3.53 million.

The Great Wicomico River project was initiated in 2004 and involved the construction of 64 acres of oyster reef habitat and the seeding of 15 million disease resistant brood stock oysters. These 64 acres of reefs will become “breeder reefs” producing hundreds of millions of disease resistant spat-on-shell that will set on areas outside the 64 acres of corps reefs, which are permanent sanctuaries that will be used for seeding future projects within the Chesapeake Bay. Total cost for construction, seeding, and monitoring of this project to date is approximately $3.96 million.

The Lynnhaven River project is scheduled to begin construction in 2007 and involved the initial construction of 111 acres of oyster reef habitat and the seeding of disease resistant spat on shell or brood stock oysters. The project will represent the very best cutting edge science to the problems facing native oyster restoration. The total cost for construction, seeding, and monitoring of this project is estimated at approximately $6.5 million. The total project scope may restore approximately 430 acres of oyster reefs in the Lynnhaven River.