By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A U.S. government study of the risks and rewards involved in seeding the Chesapeake Bay with an Asian oyster has found, after four years and $15 million, that the plan could have both -- punting the controversial question back to officials in Maryland and Virginia.

Officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers presented that conclusion yesterday morning, 16 months after their evaluation of the oyster's potential impact had been due.

They found that the Asian oyster might thrive in the bay, filtering its water and providing watermen with something new to catch. It might also multiply rapidly enough to crowd out the bay's native oyster species, a Chesapeake symbol for centuries.

In the end, the Corps of Engineers decided it could not recommend what the states should do.

"We didn't feel like . . . we wanted to say: 'This is the preferred alternative. What do you think?' " said Col. Dionysios Anninos, commander of the Corps' Norfolk District.

Officials involved with the study said it provided invaluable new data about the Asian oyster and the Chesapeake's bivalve -- offering suggestions about ways the native oyster could be brought back.

It was an anticlimactic end to a process that watermen, environmentalists and state officials had been following since 2004. Maryland and Virginia leaders had asked for the study, hoping it would support their hopes that a new oyster -- resistant to the shellfish diseases that were damaging the Chesapeake -- could rebuild the bay's economy and ecosystem at once.

Donald F. Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, said the study's findings were notable for what they didn't say: that the Asian oyster would be a cure-all for the Chesapeake.

"This idea of this magic oyster that would immediately come back and repopulate the bay: This study shows that's not likely," Boesch said. One problem: The Asian oyster needs a rocky bottom to settle on. But after watermen have scraped away old oyster "reefs" and silt has covered the bay floor, there is precious little of that left.

The Corps will hold six public hearings next month in Maryland and Virginia (Corps officials said they would post details at http://www.nao.usace.army.mil) and issue a final report next year. But officials said the decision about whether to introduce Asian oysters -- in fenced-off oyster farms or dumped into the bay -- will largely be left to the states.

In Virginia, a fisheries official said yesterday that the state was making up its mind. But in Maryland, enthusiasm about Asian oysters has cooled significantly since Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) left office. In a statement yesterday, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said, "I remain concerned that the risk of such an irrevocable step could well outweigh any benefit."

"It looks like, to me, it's going to be a political battle, not a scientific battle," said Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association, who supports the idea of introducing Asian oysters. "I'm unhappy that they spent [$15 million] to tell us nothing."