Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, for inviting me to today's hearing. I am Scott Gudes, Acting Administrator of NOAA and Deputy Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere in the Department of Commerce. I am happy to be here today to discuss oyster restoration in the Chesapeake Bay, and the role of marine protected areas in marine resource management. Both are essential elements of the many excellent efforts underway in the Bay to restore this valuable ecosystem.

I have been asked to testify about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) involvement in oyster restoration, oyster disease research, and the role Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can play in the ongoing oyster recovery efforts. I would like to begin by providing a brief history of the oyster fishery in the Chesapeake Bay. This background is necessary to put NOAA's contributions, and the efforts of the many partners who are also committed to restoring the Bay's oyster population, into context.

Changes in the abundance of oysters over the last three centuries mirror the larger transformations that have occurred in the Chesapeake Bay. Since the mid-1800s, the amount of oysters harvested in the Bay has declined to less than two percent of prior levels, resulting in a significant economic impact and broad ecological consequences. Healthy oyster reefs are an efficient filtering systems and oyster larvae are an important food source for many species. Oyster reefs also serve as habitat for crabs, mussels, clams, finfish, and many invertebrates that are important food items for higher predators, including commercially and recreationally important species. As the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO) shifts its focus from a single or multi-species fishery management, to an ecosystem-based approach, the important ecosystem functions of oysters are being further recognized.

Additionally, oyster population and harvest data are key elements in ecosystem modeling efforts for the Bay. The important ecological functions of oyster habitats are being described, and recommendations for their use and protection will be provided in the Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) currently under development by NOAA and its partners. Working with other Bay partners, NOAA is helping to identify specific areas where certain types of activities should be controlled in order to protect reef structure, permit oyster reproduction and growth, and allow spat set.

While estimates of the historical amount of oyster bottom range from 400,000 acres to less than 220,000 acres, only a relatively small amount of viable oyster bottom exists in the Bay today. The dramatic decline in the oyster population and oyster habitat has occurred in a number of fairly distinct phases, a result of a number of factors. Overfishing (including the habitat destruction associated with certain fishing gears and methods), disease, pollution, and siltation have devastated what was once the Chesapeake Bay's most lucrative fishery. Loss of the physical structure provided by oyster reefs, and the extensive biotic communities that existed within and around them, has had marked effects on the overall Bay health and ecology. The economic and social impacts on local communities and watermen dependent upon oysters have been no less dramatic.

Prior to 1865, oyster harvest remained plentiful, but modest. Most of the harvest was conducted by hand-tonging, a relatively inefficient harvest method that did not significantly alter the physical structure of the reefs. In 1865, oyster dredges were legalized and harvest numbers skyrocketed. Dredges harvested more efficiently and made areas that had previously been difficult to harvest with hand tongs more accessible. After the advent of the dredge, harvests peaked at over 15 million bushels in 1887. Scraping by these dredges resulted in the flattening of raised oyster reef structure and served to reduce the overall benefits of this structure (e.g., aggregated oyster spawning stock, 3-dimensional fish habitat, and elevation off the silty bottom).

In the 1950s, hydraulic-powered hand tongs, with the ability to remove large clumps of oysters from reef structures, further increased the efficiency of the fishery. The more efficient gear kept the fishery viable, with harvest levels in a near steady-state of about 4-5 million bushels per year, but prevented the long-term sustainability of the fishery. Recent harvest levels represent historic lows and have remained fairly constant over the last three to four years, averaging about 300,000 bushels annually in Maryland and 22,000 bushels annually in Virginia.

The effects of high levels of fishing and associated habitat destruction were compounded by the onset of two oyster diseases, Dermo and MSX. Dermo (Perkinsus marinus), a natural parasite in Atlantic estuaries, has been in the Bay since the late 1950s. It is most prevalent and infective at high salinities, killing oysters at an age just before they reach marketable size (age 2 to 3 years). Another identified oyster disease, MSX (Haplosporidium nelsoni), was introduced to the Bay, possibly through the importation of oysters from other areas. It is less understood than Dermo and kills very young oysters in high salinity waters.

While a number of localized populations of Bay oysters display some resistance to disease onset and mortality (large, market-sized oysters in areas of high disease prevalence suggest some traits of disease resistance), we do not yet have a long-term solution or answer to how to combat these diseases beyond managing around them. Recent efforts to conduct genetic crosses to create a disease-resistant strain of oysters have shown some early promise. However, even if the strain is highly successful, it would be many years until it could make up a significant component of the genetic pool of the Bay-wide oyster stock. The bulk of oyster restoration efforts today focus on re-establishing historic reefs through the placement of shell and young oysters. One of the more promising approaches is the creation of 3-dimensional reefs that extend significantly off the floor of the Bay and are thought to be more conducive to healthy and productive oyster populations.

Oyster Disease

In an effort to address the ongoing oyster disease problem, NOAA has supported an Oyster Disease Research Program (ODRP) since 1989. Between the start of the program and 1999, NOAA invested $1.5 million per year, and increased funding to $2 million in 2000. Administered by NOAA Sea Grant since 1995, this program has focused primarily on mid-Atlantic oyster disease problems, such as the parasites Dermo and MSX, as well as juvenile oyster disease and summer mortality syndrome.

The combination of these disease factors have led to the decline of both the mid-Atlantic and Pacific oyster industries. The ODRP has been guided by an Advisory Committee, as well as an ongoing process of constituent involvement through a series of workshops and scientific meetings that have resulted in recommendations for research. The results of the ODRP were summarized in a 1998 publication entitled, "Restoring Oysters to U.S. Coastal Waters," and on a web page (www.mdsg.umd.edu/oysters/disease/index). Sea Grant also has supported a Gulf Oyster Industry Program at $1 million per year for the past three years to work on restoring and improving the Gulf oyster industry. These programs have provided new technology, improved oyster stocks, and scientific information that are being used by state managers and the oyster industry. Several significant accomplishments made by the ODRP include:

Development of disease resistant oyster strains that are about 10 times more resistant than native wild stocks to both Dermo and MSX.

Development of disease models incorporating environmental, biological and hydrographic information to allow better management of the oyster industry. These models are being used by managers in some states to predict the annual severity of disease for oyster harvesters.

Improved understanding of the disease mechanisms and virulence that impact oyster survival. We have learned that there are several levels of virulence depending upon the species of Dermo. There are currently 3 species of Dermo.

Improved diagnostics for identification and quantification of oyster diseases. We now have diagnostic techniques that can detect a single parasite cell in 30 grams of oyster tissue. This level of detection improves our ability to assure disease free status for oysters that may be moved around the bay in commercial oyster operations.

A recent breakthrough in producing tetraploid American Oysters (Crassostria virginica) has been made, allowing assured production of triploid oysters. Triploid oysters maintain higher meat quality during summer months, thus extending the market season. Triploid oysters are also sterile, thus removing the threat of genetic alterations of wild stocks from oysters placed in the bay for aquaculture or enhancement.

Improved communications between scientists, managers, industry, and the general public on oyster issues in the United States. Oyster issues are being discussed in many educational contexts including K-12 education, as well public fora.

ODRP managers realize that the overall goal is to restore oysters in coastal waters, both for industry and the important ecological roles that they play in water quality and ecology. In FY'01, researchers began to apply the technology developed for diagnostics and improved disease- resistant stocks to field applications. Disease-resistant oysters created through the ODRP are being placed on restoration oyster reefs and compared to non-resistant stocks to determine if any differences exist in survivability. Disease diagnostic tools with greater sensitivity are also being used in at least two projects to study disease transmission and severity.

Additionally, the National Sea Grant Program, through the Virginia and Maryland state Sea Grant Programs, is planning a major oyster summit meeting for Fall 2002 in Washington, D.C. Participants will include scientists, resource managers, NGO's and interested governmental officials. We will use the opportunity to discuss the status of both oyster disease research and ongoing restoration efforts, and how we can improve future coordination of these two important activities.

Oyster Restoration

Oyster restoration seeks to reestablish or duplicate the functional, high-quality, hard bottom habitat that once existed throughout much of the Chesapeake Bay. It typically involves uncovering existing shell or distributing new shell in formerly productive areas, then seeding the bottom with spat (young oysters) or adult broodstock. In some areas, enough oyster larvae are produced naturally to allow sites to recolonize via natural spat set. In the long-term, truly restoring oysters and oyster reef habitat involves restoring or mimicking the hard substrate produced by living oysters. Through restoration, we are "jumpstarting" the natural system. The long-term goal is to restore a sustainable oyster population that will provide multiple ecological benefits, as well as support a viable commercial fishery.

The 1999 Chesapeake Bay Oyster Restoration Consensus Report outlined a number of ideas to facilitate oyster restoration. The three key concepts within the document are: (1) the importance of three-dimensional reef habitat for oysters and the resulting community of organisms that utilize them; (2) the necessity for reef sanctuary areas to preserve and protect broodstocks for replenishment of nearby harvestable areas nearby; and (3) the importance of changing the current practice of moving potentially disease-infected seed from areas of high infection to those areas with low or no disease presence. Independently, these suggestions will require significant changes in current management practices and resource commitments.

Numerous Federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as public and private non-profit organizations are involved in oyster restoration efforts. NOAA's current efforts in oyster restoration are centered around two principal themes: progress toward the Chesapeake 2000 goal to restore oysters to 10-times their current biomass by 2010, and furthering science through development of innovative restoration techniques and strategies. To this end, NOAA has dedicated funds to increase oyster substrate and rear young spat oysters for placement on natural or restored bottom areas. Projects range from large-scale production to relatively small-scale endeavors.

Significant funding has been targeted toward increasing the capacity and efficiency of hatchery-based restoration efforts, where immense quantities of spat-on-shell (young oysters set on old oyster shell) are produced for placement on recreated oyster shell mounds. No less significant are modest amounts of funding provided through NOAA's Community-Based Restoration Program for "oyster gardening" programs that encourage citizen and school groups to grow young oysters for up to one year, before planting them on restored reefs. Oyster restoration is also being furthered through the funding of applied research and cooperative partnerships. For example, alternative substrate studies are underway to address the critical issues of limited availability of shell substrate. Additionally, older, disease-resistant oysters are being moved to sanctuary areas in proximity to commercial oyster beds, where oysters are aggregated and protected, in hopes of improving chances for strong natural spat sets.

NOAA staff, through the Chesapeake Bay Office, Restoration Center, Coastal Zone Management Program, and other programs have been integrally involved in restoration planning, coordination, and cooperation among all the entities in each state to further NOAA goals to restore both the ecological function and habitat value of oyster reefs. Staff have provided extensive monitoring assistance to the states and other entities involved in oyster restoration, through diving services, boat support, and labor during critical phases of the rearing, nursery and planting stages of oyster restoration. In cooperative projects, NOAA divers provide monitoring and assessment expertise to validate project results. NOAA ship-based charting technology is also being utilized to locate suitable bottom substrate types to help identify appropriate planting areas.

Oyster Recovery Partnership

In Maryland waters, NOAA is working closely with the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP), and has provided over $1.6 million to ORP for oyster recovery efforts since 1999. The ORP is the leading regional organization initiating, coordinating, and managing oyster restoration efforts in Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay. ORP has representation from many interest groups, including significant involvement from commercial watermen. While ORP's focus has been on restoring oyster habitat and oysters for harvesting, the program is working with NOAA to employ strategies to further the science of oyster restoration. This includes: the first broad-scale field testing of potentially disease-resistant oyster strains; leveraging ORP funds with those available for oyster sanctuary and reserve sites to implement co-located reserves and sanctuaries with commercial harvest sites; and experimenting with methods to recondition existing non-viable oyster bars that had been smothered by sediment.

While one emphasis of ORP is directed at restoring harvestable oyster bottom, a significant proportion of the funding from FY'01 has been directed at increasing production capabilities of spat-on-shell. Hatchery production of young oysters at the University of Maryland's Horn Point Hatchery is needed in Maryland waters where predictable spatfall does not occur in all areas. The hatchery product is often the limiting factor in restoration efforts. ORP mechanized the grow-out process by incorporating state-of-the-art stainless steel containers, boom trucks, and forklifts. This has allowing bulk handling of shell and spat, and has resulted in excess of 100 million spat-on-shell being produced this year alone.

Community-Based Restoration Program

NOAA's Community-Based Restoration Program (CRP) has provided funding to communities in 10 states for oyster restoration, including Atlantic and Pacific coast states, as well as to states bordering the Gulf of Mexico. To date, 26 oyster restoration projects have been funded with nearly $1 million in CRP funds, which are leveraged at the local level between one and five times. The bulk of oyster restoration funding has been focused in the Chesapeake Bay, where NOAA Restoration Center staff has provided close to $350,000 to groups in Maryland and Virginia, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Chesapeake Appreciation Inc., Assateague Coastal Trust, and others. This will translate to more than $1 million in oyster restoration efforts once volunteer labor and local contributions are included. NOAA staff work closely with communities to aid in project development and implementation. Projects often are monitored and maintained by communities, promoting stewardship and a heightened appreciation for a healthy environment.

Coastal Zone Management Program

In FY'99 and FY'00, NOAA's Coastal Zone Management Program provided the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality $500,000 each year to fund comprehensive restoration planning for oyster sanctuary reefs on the Rappahannock River.

The success of the oyster recovery efforts in the Chesapeake Bay will rely on the continued support of existing research and restoration efforts, as well as the careful coordination of the many partners participating in this effort. The progressive approaches being pursued in the Bay, such as the use of oyster reserves and sanctuaries in conjunction with commercial harvest areas, reflects the willingness of the Bay partners to work together to take an ecosystem approach to oyster recovery. This approach also provides an example of the concepts supported under Marine Protected Areas.

Marine Protected Areas

What are Marine Protected Areas?
Before describing the role of marine protected areas in the Chesapeake Bay, I would like to provide some background on MPAs in general and on NOAA's recent efforts in using them for the long-term conservation and management of marine resources. While the term marine protected area has been used for over two decades, the concept of using MPAs for fishery management has been around for centuries. The term is generally used to describe marine areas given some sort of special protection. Today, there are many different types of marine protected areas, or MPAs in use around the world for different purposes.
MPAs come in different shapes, sizes, and management characteristics, and have been established for different purposes, with varying types of protection and uses. They range from areas with no consumptive uses, such as Edmonds Underwater Park in Washington State (set aside as an underwater park visited by scuba divers), to multiple-use areas, such as those found in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. In the United States, MPAs may include national marine sanctuaries, fisheries management zones, national seashores, the marine areas of national parks and national monuments, critical habitats, national wildlife refuges, national estuarine research reserves, state conservation areas, state reserves, and privately owned and managed areas.

There are many different types of MPAs to serve as many purposes. They are managed by a variety of different groups at federal, state, and local levels. Unfortunately, there is currently no inventory of the existing U.S. MPAs. NOAA and the Department of the Interior are presently working to develop an inventory of existing MPAs to help us all better understand how to best use these MPAs as marine resource management tools.

How are Marine Protected Areas Used?

MPAs are an important tool for fishery management today, with examples including area and seasonal fishing closures for protection of spawning grounds, or fishing closures for restoration of essential habitat and depleted spawning stocks. Several regional Fisheries Management Councils, such as the South Atlantic, Pacific, and Western Pacific are currently in stages of proposal, design, or review of marine protected areas for management of their regionally important commercial and recreational species.
Other types of MPAs may also provide biodiversity protection and conservation of sensitive habitats and endangered species, or provide recreational and educational opportunities to the public. MPAs designed to increase and protect biodiversity and those sites designed for fishery enhancement purposes are not mutually exclusive. The success of either type of MPA is based on the enhancement and protection of a healthy marine ecosystem. MPAs can be unique tools in the marine resource management toolbox, because they shift the emphasis of marine resource management from the traditional focus on a single species to protection of a specific area or habitat that can often help meet multiple goals and objectives. Our science and experience indicate that MPAs can be useful tools to help manage, protect and sustain the Nation's valuable marine resources, as well as the people and economies that depend on them. How best to use MPAs in combination with other management tools to meet these goals is a major challenge for ocean stewardship.

Clearly, MPAs by themselves are not a "silver bullet" to marine management. MPAs are an additional tool for marine resource management that place an emphasis on spatial parameters, but cannot be successful if used in isolation. Their use and design requires a consideration of such factors as oceanographic regimes, sources of pollution, or how fishing effort affects ecosystem processes inside and outside the protected area. The design, placement, and implementation of an MPA need to be considered within the context of a variety parameters, that include socio-economic considerations of the affected fishing community, in order to form an integrated ecosystem approach for marine resource management. MPAs are best used in combination with, and to complement, other management tools.

What is the Federal Role in MPAs?

The federal MPA initiative is a collaborative effort between NOAA and the Department of the Interior that seeks to partner with other Federal, state and territorial agencies and other stakeholder groups to help provide information, tools and services to build a framework for a comprehensive and coordinated system of MPAs in our Nation's waters. The initiative grew out of Executive Order 13158 (May 2000) on Marine Protected Areas and received further endorsement when Secretary Evans announced that the Bush Administration had decided to retain the Order. The Order does not create any new authority to establish MPAs, rather it establishes a mechanism to improve their effectiveness and "to harmonize commercial and recreational activity with conservation." The initiative is designed to understand the effectiveness of the collection of existing marine protected sites in each region; increase coordination and effectiveness among the assortment of existing sites to better meet increasing demands; and help local, state, Federal, and tribal entities most effectively use MPAs under existing statutory authority to meet their goals. To address these challenges, NOAA is working with government and non-government partners to:

build an inventory and assessment of existing sites within U.S. waters;

provide a sound scientific foundation and tools for MPA design, management and evaluation under existing statutory authority;

develop and maintain a website at http://mpa.gov to provide access to information on MPAs;

provide an open, equitable and meaningful process to engage user groups and the American public on MPAs through stakeholder workshops and an MPA Federal Advisory Committee.

NOAAs FY'02 budget request included $3 million to help implement these efforts. I would like to thank Chairman Gilchrest and other members of the Committee for their leadership and support of marine protected areas.

MPAs in the Chesapeake Bay

There are many examples of MPAs in the Chesapeake Bay, including two National Estuarine Research Reserves in Maryland and Virginia. These Reserves are federal-state partnerships between NOAA and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and NOAA and Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The Maryland Reserve has three sites or components throughout the upper Bay. The Virginia Reserve protects four components on the York River. Both Reserves include estuarine habitats that function as living laboratories for research and educational activities. The sites are also part of a nation-wide system, helping to monitor water quality in estuaries around the Nation, and conduct educational workshops for resource managers in the area. Both reserves also conduct regionally specific activities that are aimed towards improving the management and condition of Chesapeake Bay. These and other sites have shown us how valuable different types of MPAs can be to help sustain these valuable resources.

Various forms of MPA concepts are currently in use in the Chesapeake Bay, though typically known by different terms. NOAA is doing work in conjunction with the Bay partners to create elevated, three-dimensional reefs, in areas throughout the Bay that are set aside as non-harvest broodstock "reserve" or "sanctuary" areas. Historical harvest areas surrounding these restored, elevated sanctuary sites are also being restored to clean the existing surface shells of sediment and re-plant with oysters destined for future harvest. Many of the newly restored harvest areas will be adaptively managed to control the future harvest to a certain percentage of the standing stock, as well as to permit only certain gear types in certain areas. The long-term goal is to restore both the harvest and non-harvest areas to allow the oyster populations to be self-sustaining, while maintaining a viable commercial fishery. Although the oyster reserves and sanctuaries are closed to oyster harvest, they are open and available for all other uses, especially for fishermen who flock to these areas because of the higher densities of finfish species. These multi-agency efforts provide an excellent example of using ecosystem-based research and management to design and use MPAs as a management tool.

Similarly, the Commonwealth of Virginia has established seasonal closures along the deep channels of the southern Bay for blue crabs to provide protection during the crabs' annual summer migration. While both commercial and recreational crabbing are prohibited in these corridors during these migration periods, all other commercial and recreational activities remain open. The benefits provided by this deep water sanctuary to crabs are still under investigation; however, the intent behind this effort resembles the MPA concepts of identifying areas that are critical to health of the blue crab population and providing the necessary protection. Those areas identified as providing important benefits to multiple species should be carefully evaluated by the Bay partners and considered as potential sites for future MPAs as part of the suite of efforts being undertaken to help restore the Chesapeake Bay's economic productivity and ecosystem integrity.

I want to reemphasize that MPAs have been used successfully in fisheries management for decades and have played an important role in the recovery of many important commercial and recreational species, such as New England groundfish and scallops. The success of MPAs relies upon the support of the entire community that is dependent upon the resources and benefits provided by the Bay. Therefore, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of total community involvement in any MPA process that may take place in the Bay.

I would like to reiterate NOAA's commitment to oyster restoration in the Bay. The restoration of a healthy, sustainable oyster population will require continued oyster disease research, including selection and propagation of disease resistant oyster strains. Until such time as we are better able to control disease in the oyster population, we need to continue the innovative restoration work that allows us to mange around these diseases. This restoration works provides the foundation for a projected ten-fold increase in population that we, as part of the Bay community, are committed to attaining by 2010.

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony. Again, I appreciate the opportunity to share with you and the other members of the Committee NOAA's efforts in the Chesapeake Bay and am prepared to respond to questions.