Oysters of the world, property rights are your friend!
Same Chesapeake Bay, two different states…. and two very different fishing industries. Virginia’s fisherman are doing OK, adapting to pollution, over-fishing and oyster-killing diseases. Maryland’s are barely hanging on. Why is Virginia’s doing better? Property rights.
At least, that’s the spin of Rona Kobell, writing for the Reason Foundation in, “Privatizing the Chesapeake.” Maryland has thrown research dollars and regulations at its watermen in the hopes of reviving the oyster industry. Virginia allows its watermen to lease oyster beds, giving them an incentive to steward their precious resource.
It makes a great story, although I would like to see some solid numbers proving that Virginia’s oysters and clams are prospering while Maryland’s are not. Without question, our aquaculture industry is out-performing Maryland’s but I’d like to know how the wild critters are faring.
As an anecdotal sidelight, there is a movement among Virginia bay-front landowners to plant mini-oyster beds in the waters off their property. An acquaintance of mine, a physician in his weekday life, seeds oysters and maintains a bed as a socially beneficial hobby — he’s doing his small part to help oysters regain their former glory. Many of his neighbors are doing the same. If every landowner created oyster beds off their property, it could make a material contribution to the healing of the bay.
— JAB
