James River oysters are in season at LP Steamers at Locust Point Wed., Oct. 20, 2021. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun Staff) (Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun)

The decline in oyster numbers in the James River’s Wreck Shoals sanctuary off Newport News was so sharp last fall — and so out of step with the rest of the bay — that Virginia Marine Resources Commission staff went back for a second look.

With no weather disasters or sharp upticks in disease, it didn’t make sense that a sanctuary, where no oysters are supposed to be taken, should see declines of 30% in live oyster numbers. Wreck Shoals is a major nursery for oysters, a $22 million a year fishery, mainly centered on the Peninsula.

To researchers at Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, the most obvious explanation is poaching.

The James River Association has called on the commission to step up enforcement and install a buoy and camera to keep an eye out for poaching.

“However, without direct evidence of such activity, VMRC is not prepared to state that sustained illegal harvesting occurred at the site,” said Matthew Rogers, chief of law enforcement for the commission, when asked about the poaching concerns.

“VMRC staff and law enforcement are working on this matter to identify, investigate and enforce any criminal activity,” he said. “Since this matter continues to be the subject of a criminal investigation by the agency, current and future actions cannot be fully shared at this time.”

VMRC’s annual survey last fall showed a 30% drop in live oyster counts, with numbers of market sized oysters down by 7 for every square meter of the Wreck Shoals reef, commission records show.

The volume of shells in the reef is down by 2.8 liters per square meter, the survey found.

“As this area is closed to harvest and there is no indication of environmental factors, such as large numbers of dead oysters, this decline is indicative of extensive illegal harvesting,” Andrew Button, head of the commission’s conservation and replenishment department, wrote in a Nov. 12 email.

He said what he described as probable theft translated to the stealing of $1.6 million worth of oysters and that it would cost the state $530,000 to replace lost shells on the reef.

“It is disturbing, to say the least,” VIMS scientist Melissa Southworth wrote at the time. “We thought that our random samples this year were just not in the best areas ... so we even went back to areas that have been the ‘best’ areas on the reef over the past few years and still found a lack of big clumps and decreased volumes/oysters.”

When another VIMS scientist wondered how such a sharp drop could happen without anyone noticing, Button said it could be the result of as few as 3 or 5 boats, working a couple of hours before sunrise one day a week and taking 50 bushels — and even less time if they used a dredge

The 585-acre Wreck Shoals reef, off Mulberry Island near the mouth of the Warwick River in the middle of one of the largest complexes of oyster reefs on the East Coast, has been a sanctuary where taking oysters is banned since 2009. To keep those nearby reefs from being damaged and so cutting oyster numbers, dredges are barred and only hand-tonging is allowed.

James River Association President William Street said the loss of that many oysters — each one of which can filter 50 gallons of water a day — has a major impact on water quality in the river.

The decline, which he also believes is due to poaching, cuts the supply of spat — baby oysters — to thousands of acres of surrounding public oyster reefs. Private lease-holders also rely on spat from Wreck Shoals to replenish their oysters, he said.

The state’s rules for watermen bar even the transport of dredge across sanctuaries.

Dredging can tear up the reefs of piled up shells that oysters like, while oyster numbers and sizes in a sanctuary are large, making them a tempting target.

Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com