Oysters becoming more rare

Oysters may soon be an endangered species.
A new survey comparing the past and present condition of oyster reefs around the globe finds that more than 90 percent of oyster reefs have been lost to overharvesting and disease.
The new survey is published in the February issue of BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
It was conducted by an international team led by Michael W. Beck of The Nature Conservancy and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Beck's team examined oyster reefs across 144 bays and 44 ecoregions.
It also studied historical records as well as national catch statistics.
The survey suggests that about 85 percent of reefs worldwide have now been lost and rates the condition of oysters as "poor" overall.
The one exception is the Gulf Coast of the United States.
Most of the world's harvest of native oysters comes from just five ecoregions in North America, but even there, the condition of reefs is "poor" or worse, except in the Gulf of Mexico.
The study’s authors said oyster fisheries along the Gulf of Mexico are "probably the last opportunity to achieve large-scale oyster reef conservation and sustainable fisheries."
The survey team argues for improved mapping efforts and the removal of incentives to over-exploitation.
It also recommends that harvesting and further reef destruction should not be allowed wherever oysters are at less than 10 percent of their former abundance, unless it can be shown that these activities do not substantially affect reef recovery.


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