VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Capt. Chris Ludford met News 3 on his boat at Lynnhaven Marina Saturday to talk about oysters and waterway restoration efforts after Virginia renewed it's commitment to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.
He raises oysters and is out on the water — typically the Lynnhaven River which is a tidal estuary that flows into the Chesapeake Bay — at least five days a week.
"We generally go out two to three hours before low tide. We work the entire time the water levels are dropping. That way we can see and we don't get wet over our boots and waders. This time of year we have to wear waders. And we go out and we check the oysters, we tumble them, we make sure they have plenty of space," said Capt. Chris Ludford, owner of Pleasure House Oysters. "Only one out of five days do we actually harvest the oysters, the other four days is just work. We just work the oysters."
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Some of his work is to sell oysters, moving roughly 25,000 to 50,000 oysters a year, another part is education and tours.
He wants one of the area's staple resources to live on too. That's why he and others with Lynnhaven River Now use oyster shells to restore oyster reefs.
"The shell is very valuable. It's like gold. The oysters love to grow on each other. So we put the shells down, even from dead oysters as a base, a foundation, and then the new oysters grow and populate on those," said Ludford. "I'm rebuilding [reefs], revitalizing them and then I harvest small sections at a time. Sustainable. I want that reef to be able to rebuild itself."
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It's all to get more oysters in the water.
"They filter water, up to 50 gallons a day, each oyster. They clean the water, they harbor nitrogen which reduces ocean acidification, they create habitat for fish and they taste great and are very good for you," said Ludford.
"I think oysters are a great example where we not only have met the targets we set out but we have very likely surpassed them by the time we get to 2025," said Jay Ford, Virginia policy manager with Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Ford explained that some cleanup goals of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed are being met, like oyster restoration and protection, while others, like wetland reestablishment and water quality efforts, need work. The goals are part of a Chesapeake Bay Agreement. It was signed by states, including Virginia, and others neighboring the bay when the health of the bay was shown to be declining.
Watch: How to become an oyster gardener and help keep the Chesapeake Bay clean
"The Chesapeake Bay Agreement has really been a conversation that's been going on since the early 80s when the governors got together and said we really needed to do something to turn around the tide on bay health. We saw fisheries plummeting, multiple bodies of water were simply not swimmable," explained Ford. "It represented a public health risk and frankly an economic one because the Chesapeake Bay is responsible for billions of dollars of economic activity in the Commonwealth each year. So that process started. It started simple. The governors got together and said cleaning up the bay is a good idea."
Though not all goals are being met as the 2025 deadline looms, Virginia is renewing its commitment to the effort.
Thursday Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive directive on Chesapeake Bay Restoration.
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"What they really said is the bay is critical to the Commonwealth. It is a major economic driver. It is a major quality of life driver for people who live in Virginia so they are committing to a series of next steps to help Virginia get to the next level of bay restoration," said Ford. "A number of things they really touched on that we were excited to see are a focus on holistic and science-based objectives. Looking at living resources, looking at increased water monitoring, so we know that when we are taking tax dollars and putting them into restoration that we are getting a return on investment for that."
The Chesapeake Bay will be a topic of discussion for federal and state leaders next week too when they discuss the next steps at the Chesapeake Executive Council meeting in Annapolis, MD on Dec. 10.
Back on the water, Captain Ludford's always glad to teach folks about oysters.
"Well it is oyster season," he said.
If you eat any oysters you can always drop off your shells. Information on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation shell recycling can be found here. Information on Lynnhaven River Now shell recycling can be found here.
