Success of constructed oyster reefs in no-harvest sanctuaries: implications for restoration.

The article presents a study which discusses the failure to sustain oyster fisheries and the dramatic decline in the population of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica in many U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico estuaries. It mentions that oysters offer significant ecosystem services which led state management agencies to allow oyster reefs to be degraded and mined to extract the marketable oysters. It relates that examinations on the estuaries are considered successful from an ecological or oyster fishery view, but success on its restoration of subtidal reefs varies.