THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 4, 1996 TAG: 9606040344
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 55 lines
Jane C. Webb removed her shoe and plopped it on the podium.
``That's about as big as the oysters were,'' said Webb, a member of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, comparing her white pump to an average oyster caught during Colonial days from the clear waters of Chesapeake Bay.
Her point had nothing to do with fashion, but rather, history and perspective. She was speaking Monday to about 200 curious students from Northside Middle School who had asked Webb and other fishery experts across Virginia to come to Norfolk and help explain where all the oysters have gone.
Oyster harvests in the Bay have plummeted to just 1 percent of their historic bounty, and they now support only a handful of watermen on the James River, the last public oyster ground in Virginia.
After about two hours of questions and answers, a panel of polite, well-prepared seventh-graders learned what scientists, politicians and watermen took a century of debate to grasp: There are no easy answers.
One student, Calvin Smith, strolled to the microphone and asked Webb why Virginia doesn't just ban oystering. Wouldn't that help, he asked.
Webb smiled.
``When I think the best thing to do is shut down the oyster business, I have to think what's going to happen to all those watermen,'' she said. ``Watermen have families. They have mortgages and bills to pay. They're real people, too. . . . Let me tell you, it ain't easy.''
About 110 students have been studying the plight of the oyster for nearly a year. They thought they had the straight scoop after visiting with experts from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group. But then they heard about the problems of struggling watermen, who had a much different story to tell. The issue clouded.
Students convened their oyster conference at Nauticus, inviting three scientists, a waterman, a state politician and a state policymaker, in hopes of reaching a consensus.
They learned that oysters have been declining for the better part of 100 years - in part by pollution from increased development along the Bay, in part by increasing fishing pressure from watermen, and in part by two merciless diseases that scientists still don't fully understand.
Jim Wesson, the state official charged with replenishing oyster stocks in the lower Bay, asked how many students had ever eaten a raw oyster. Only a few raised their hands.
``If this had been 1960, almost every one of you would have raised their hand,'' Wesson said, making the point that the oyster has gradually slipped from a staple food in Virginia to a distant luxury.
The students will continue their research, with plans to raise their own oysters in Mason Creek and in a school laboratory. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
Jim Wesson, left, joined other fishery experts across Virginia at
Northside Middle School on Monday to answer questions from students
during a Teen Forum on Chesapeake Bay Oysters. by CNB