The management scheme that evolved during the early 1950s, which continues through today, consists of three parties: the oyster industry, through the Delaware Bay Shellfish Council; the State Bureau of Shellfisheries (DEP), the management agency; and Rutgers, the independent source of data. Each fall, the HSRL surveys about 100 locations on the seed beds using a stratified random survey. The kinds of data obtained include numbers of juvenile and adult oysters per bushel, size of oysters, mortality, and oyster disease prevalence and intensity. The data are presented to the Shellfish Council and to the Bureau of Shellfisheries in the winter, and are the primary basis for the Council's recommendation on whether to open beds for spring transplant (or more recently, for direct harvest). The Council considers whether juvenile oysters predominate in certain areas, in which case harvest is prohibited on those areas to allow the young oysters to mature. High disease levels also lead to bed closing because transplanted oysters would die before they could be marketed. When beds are opened, they are regularly sampled. The change in bed condition, combined with the total quantity of seed harvested, determines when individual beds are closed.
The program's success can be measured by the fact that overfishing has ceased to be a problem, even during periods when oyster diseases placed severe pressure on the resource. The Council's recommendations, based on Rutger's data, and consensus views of Industry, DEP Shellfisheries biologists, and Rutgers scientists, have consistently been adopted by state management (DEP). Confrontation between management and industry, long the bane of most fishery management, has been almost completely eliminated for nearly half a century.
Over the last 6 years, drought and high temperature have increased pressure from oyster diseases. The Oyster Industry is now considering major changes in resource use to combat disease. Sound scientific data will be more important than ever to ensure continued good management of this public resource.
The State of New Jersey is responsible for managing about 13,000 acres of natural oyster beds in the upper Delaware Bay. These beds sustain the New Jersey oyster industry by providing natural seed for transplanting to private leased grounds and for direct harvest of market-sized individuals. Overharvesting during the first half of the 20th century led Rutgers University's Oyster Investigation Laboratory (now Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory - HSRL) to establish a combined research, monitoring, and management plan designed to rehabilitate and stabilize the beds. Since the early 1950s, this program has provided scientific information upon which management of the resources has been based. This continuous data set is acknowledged to be one of the very best fishery resource data sets in existence.