Earth and Sky:By Jeff Swicord Sarah Creek, Mary

Scientists Working to Save Chesapeake Bay Oyster¹ Population

Chespeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay, on the Atlantic coast, is the largest estuary² in the United States. It is famous for its seafood³, especially crabs⁴ and oysters⁵. However, in the last century, the bay's oyster population has been in steady decline.

 

For hundreds of years, watermen of the Chesapeake Bay have made a living by harvesting oysters. In the last 50 years, the number of oysters has declined dramatically.  

Tommy Leggett is an Oyster Restoration and Fisheries scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental organization that works to protect the bay's resources. "Our population is down to one to three percent of historical levels. So, consequently our bay's water quality is down," Leggett said.
 
Graham Blake grew up on Sarah Creek⁶, a tributary⁷ to the bay. His father and grandfather made a good living as watermen by harvesting, transplanting, fattening⁸, and then re-harvesting oysters from the creek.  

Graham Blake

It was an early form of oyster farming. In the 1940s and ‘50s his family could harvest 200 to 300 bushels of oysters each day. Blake says those days are long-gone.
 
"There is none of it like my father made his living, that is non-existent. Some are still trying to make a living on the water, oystering and crabbing⁹ and so forth,” Blake said. “They have got to do a lot of things. They can't just do it in one industry anymore."
 
In the late 1950s, parasites¹⁰, which were introduced from foreign oysters, began to kill the Chesapeake Bay oyster population.

Graham and Tommy are now stocking the creek bed with hundreds of thousands of disease resistant¹¹ young oysters. When they reach adulthood¹², they are transplanted to state sanctuary¹³ reefs in the bay.  
 

Chesapeake Bay program oyster reefs

"Since 2000 we have been attempting to grow about a million oysters a year as brood stock to be placed on state sanctuary reefs to help jump start rivers,” Leggett said. “To date, we have produced about five million oysters that we have transplanted onto a number of reefs in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay."

The project seems to demonstrate that watermen and other entrepreneurs can grow oysters in the bay using aquaculture techniques.

"We have pretty well demonstrated it, and over a number of years we have had industry people come out to the site. There have been a number of people who have scaled up and are growing more oysters than we are now,” Leggett said. “Oyster farming in the bay is just getting ready to take off."
 
According to Leggett, the number of commercial operations growing oysters on the bay will dramatically increase in the next several years. His primary goal is to restore the natural oyster population to what it once was, but it is a goal he says may not happen in his lifetime.

"We are just learning some of the pitfalls¹⁴ and the roadblocks that we are going to encounter. We try and learn from our mistakes and change the way we do things,” he said. “It will happen in time. It's not going to happen in the short term."

1 oyster   

n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人

参考例句：

• I enjoy eating oyster; it's really delicious.我喜欢吃牡蛎，它味道真美。
• I find I fairly like eating when he finally persuades me to taste the oyster.当他最后说服我尝尝牡蛎时，我发现我相当喜欢吃。

2 estuary   

n.河口，江口

参考例句：

• We live near the Thames estuary.我们的住处靠近泰晤士河入海口。
• The ship has touched bottom.The estuary must be shallower than we thought.船搁浅了。这河口的水比我们想像的要浅。

3 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

4 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 oysters   

牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We don't have oysters tonight, but the crayfish are very good. 我们今晚没有牡蛎供应。但小龙虾是非常好。
• She carried a piping hot grill of oysters and bacon. 她端出一盘滚烫的烤牡蛎和咸肉。

6 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

7 tributary   

n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的

参考例句：

• There was a tributary road near the end of the village.村的尽头有条岔道。
• As the largest tributary of Jinsha river,Yalong river is abundant in hydropower resources.雅砻江是金沙江的最大支流，水力资源十分丰富。

8 fattening   

adj.（食物）要使人发胖的v.喂肥( fatten的现在分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值

参考例句：

• The doctor has advised him to keep off fattening food. 医生已建议他不要吃致肥食物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We substitute margarine for cream because cream is fattening. 我们用人造黄油代替奶油，因为奶油会使人发胖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 crabbing   

v.捕蟹( crab的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We ought not to begin by crabbing everything. 我们不应当一开始就对一切事情采取吹毛求疵的态度。 来自辞典例句
• The boss is always crabbing about my work. 老板对我的工作总是横挑鼻子竖挑眼。 来自辞典例句

10 parasites   

寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫

参考例句：

• These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
• Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。

11 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

12 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

13 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

14 pitfalls   

（捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误

参考例句：

• the potential pitfalls of buying a house 购买房屋可能遇到的圈套
• Several pitfalls remain in the way of an agreement. 在达成协议的进程中还有几个隐藏的困难。