Foreign or domestic?

Our view: Latest study documents the rewards — and many risks — of Asian oysters, but it's wrong to gamble when the Chesapeake Bay's native species still has a fighting chance It's pleasant to imagine that all that ails Maryland's once-thriving oyster industry could be swept away if a few healthy, disease-resistant Asian oysters could be tossed into the Chesapeake Bay and given a little privacy. Instead of harvesting 80,000 bushels, watermen might return to harvesting a couple of million. But the reality of what researchers have found these last four years studying the potential impact of introducing Asian oysters is quite different. Their work raises so many questions that it's hard to believe that such a move is worth the risk - or even necessarily would produce the desired results. Are fast-growing Asian oysters more... [read full story]