The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary. After slow deterioration for several centuries, the Chesapeake Bay Program was launched in 1983 to restore it. After spending more than $24 billion, the results of the restoration program are disappointing. The Bay Program has arrested the decline of the Bay, but it has failed to achieve its restoration goals—something that will become more challenging with climate change. The rate of environmental change today is more rapid than at any time in the history of humanity. The concept of restoration—to return to an earlier time and condition—is an outmoded concept for coastal ecosystems like the Chesapeake Bay that are at the leading edge of change. A better strategy would be to focus on shaping the future Bay. While we cannot create the future Bay, we have many of the tools to shape it, tools that have never been used as a complement to existing efforts. Learn about the past and present of the Bay, how climate change will affect its future, and how we can intervene to shape the future of the Chesapeake.

This cultural and ecological history explores the rise of Chesapeake’s mighty mollusk from Colonial-era harvesting to contemporary cultivation. Oysters are an essential part of Chesapeake Bay culture and cuisine, as well as the ecological and historical lifeblood of the region. When colonists first sailed these abundant shores, they described massive shoals of foot-long oysters. In later years, however, the bottomless appetite of the Gilded Age and great fleets of skipjacks took their toll. Disease, environmental pressures, and overconsumption decimated the population by the end of the twentieth century. To combat the problem, Virginia began leasing its waters to private oyster farmers. Today, these boutique oyster farms are sustainably meeting the culinary demand of a new generation of connoisseurs. But in Maryland, passionate debate continues among scientists and oystermen whether aquaculture or wild harvesting is the better path. With careful research and interviews with experts, author Kate Livie presents this dynamic story and a glimpse of what the future may hold.

The USA touts Chesapeake Bay as its premier environmental restoration programme, yet the Bay remains in poor condition.

Looking to the future, Pelton offers a provocative vision of the hard steps that must be taken if we truly want to save the Bay.

Chesapeake oysters are part of the legacy of the area, history on the half-shell. Read of their beginning (foot-long bivalves!) through cultivation today. The eastern oyster, the humble bivalve and delicous treat, are the living bones of the Chesapeake, as well as the ecological and historical lifeblood of the region. When colonists first sailed these impossibly abundant shores, they described massive shoals of foot-long oysters but the bottomless appetite of the Gilded Age and great fleets of skipjacks took their toll. Disease, environmental pressures and overconsumption decimated the population by the end of the twentieth century. While Virginia turned to bottom-leasing, passionate debate continues in Maryland among scientists and oystermen whether aquaculture or wild harvesting is the better way forward. Today, boutique oyster farming in the Bay is sustainably meeting the culinary demand of a new generation of connoisseurs. With careful research and interviews with experts, author Kate Livie presents this dynamic story and a glimpse of what the future may hold.