DELAWARE ESTUARY

Thesis:
Delaware should do more to revitalize the maritime and commercial fishing industry by
establishing a vocational school and aquatic landscaping
Body.
I.

There have been negative impacts to the Delaware fishing industry and
ecologically to the Delaware Bay caused by the decline in oyster
populations of the Delaware Bay
A. Dating as far back as the 17th century, The Delaware Bay was abundant with
oyster beds.
1. Descriptions of the oyster beds have been found in writings by Tomas
Campanius Holm dating back to 1642.
2. Due to overharvesting and a protozoan parasite discovered in 1957, a
decline in the numbers of healthy oysters was discovered.

II.

High levels of carcinogens found in the Delaware Estuary have had severe
negative impacts on the health of the estuary causing Delaware Department
of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, (DNREC) to issue
consumption warnings of aquatic animals, such, finfish (flounder, perch,
trout, etc.), that live on the surface (epifaunal organisms), and Aquatic
animals, such as clams, that live beneath the surface (infaunal organisms)

III.

native to the estuary.

There have been positive results improving both the ecology in other
estuaries.

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A. By increasing oyster populations, while managing the oyster industry

through legislation and harvest techniques in other estuaries, the oyster
industry and the ecology have simultaneously benefited.
1. New York recognized the state could solve two problems through one very
logical strategy.
2. In 2010 the New York Times published an article about the Urban Assembly
New York Harbor schools endeavors to change a pattern of high drop-out
rates and working to revitalize the oyster industry of NY
3.

Mr. Malinowski, is a second generation oysterman and an aquaculture

teacher at the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, working with the
students from the harbor school to save the New York Harbor through oyster
gardening. Kemp (2010)

4. Eighty-five percent of the students at the school are from families living
below the poverty level, and statistically most likely to drop out before
graduating high school.
5. Janique Moore, 18 at the time is evidence the school curriculum is a success.
6.

Murray Fisher, 35, is the program director at the New York Harbor School.
The harbor school became his brainstorm, creating a curriculum thats
restoration-based and makes kids feel that theyre valuable contributing
members of society. Kamp (2010).

7. Oysters are the central curriculum, not just for the historical economic
reasons, but ecologically as well.

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B. Doing the same strategy along the shoreline of the Delaware Bay in
Delaware would produce the same outcome.
1. Much like the Hudson River estuary, the Delaware had over one hundred
square miles of thriving oyster beds.
2. Oysters of the western coastline of the Delaware Bay, and their natural
habitats should belong to all the people of Delaware, just as The
Chesapeake and their natural habitats belong to all of the people of
Virginia, and Maryland.
3. According to Delaware Department of Education, 2014-1014 Dropout
Summary Report several school districts in all three counties have had the
highest student dropouts
4. Using the same strategy in Delaware, that is being done in New York City
to revitalize the oyster population The best location for a maritime high
school would be at a location where the Delaware Bays salinity levels,
and water temperatures allow mature oysters, and spats to have
sustainable habitats to grow and reproduce.
5. An ideal location should be significant in the history of Delawares
maritime history, allowing at risk students from all three counties to have
equal opportunities to attend the maritime school.
6. Such a location is revealed in reports, and publications from Rutgers
Universitys Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, the State of Delaware
and other resources.
IV. Though Woodland Beach has significance to the oyster industry, it also
poses an unlikely area to have a maritime school due to several problems
1.

Access to the community is only possible during low tide.

a. To prevent road flooding, a new design of the existing road would have to be
elevated above the high water mark.

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2. Insufficient private funding is available to purchase property to build a private or
charter high school
a. State funding would have to be approved through legislation to purchase
property to build a public high school capable of accepting at least 200
students who are at risk students, likely to drop out before graduation.

The Delaware Estuary is divided into 4 individual watersheds. A "watershed" is defined

in the Meriam Dictionary as the area of land that includes a particular river or lake and
all the rivers, streams, etc., that flow into it. In Delaware, there are four watersheds The
Piedmont Drainage, (the northern most portion of the state), ending at either, the Chesapeake
Bay Drainage, that begins at the Perch Creek Watershed, and passing through other Chesapeake
Bay watersheds that fall, along the entire western border of Delaware. Or, the Delaware Bay and
Estuary Basin that rises from the Delaware River watershed, extending down Delaware, ending
at the Broadkill River Watershed. And to the south in Delaware the 8 watersheds of the Inland
Bays (State of Delaware, date?).
The Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife, for several years, in compliance to
Delaware Department of Health and Social Services have issued fish consumption warnings
throughout the entire state of Delaware due to high levels of contaminants, and chemicals, such
as phosphorus, and nitrogen, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the banned insecticide DDT,
dioxins. furans and chrloadane the Environmental Protection Agency deems as dangerously
high, (EPA, (2010) in nearly every watershed in Delaware. These pollutants are slow to break
down in the environment, and can accumulate in epifunal and infunal organisms as well as the
sediments in lakes, streams and estuaries, (Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife, Delaware
Division of Health and Social Services)

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Dating as far back as the 17th century, The Delaware Bay was abundant with oyster beds.
Descriptions of Delawares oyster beds have been found in writings by Tomas Campanius Holm
dating back to 1642. describing the social and economic significance of the many natural
resource of what was known as New Sweden, surveyed from Cape Henelopen to portions of
Pennsylvania by the early Swedish settler who wrote Delaware Bay oysters were so very large
that the meat alone is the size of our oysters shell and all Delaware Estuary Program (2002)
Due to overharvesting and a protozoan parasite discovered in 1957- given the scientific name
MSX, a decline in the numbers of healthy oysters was discovered (Ewart, Ford, 1993). The
oyster industry suffered its most serious decreases in the number of bushels harvested declined
over 1,000 percent, from 711,000 bushels to fewer than 50,000 bushels. (Delaware Estuary
program (2010) pg. 4). However, depleted oyster populations have not been the only problems
Delaware has faced in order to reverse these dangers on the western shoreline of the Delaware
Estuary.
There have been positive results improving the ecology in other regions of the US using
strategies to repopulate oyster beds there, that if are done to the Delaware Estuary, they also
would prove successful, over time to improve the water quality, and ultimately the health of the
Delaware Estuary, and Delawares economy by increasing the Delaware Estuarys oyster
populations thorough several objectives that include oyster gardening, while better managing
the oyster industry of the estuary through legislation and conservative harvest techniques, such
as are being done in other estuaries.
One example is taken from New York City, where the Governor recognized the city and state
could solve two problems through one very logical strategy. Prior to 2010, New York City was

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experiencing high drop-out rates among high school students. NYC Department of Education
(2014). While the Hudson River, especially the Gowanus Canal was polluted with dangerous
levels of carcinogens and other chemicals harming the environment, Orff, (2010). That same
year the New York Times published an article about Urban Assembly New York Harbor schools
endeavors to change a pattern of high drop-out rates while simultaneously working to reduce the
pollution in the harbor, and revitalize the oyster population of NYC (Kemp, 2010). Much like
the Hudson River estuary, dating back to the 17th century, the Delaware, like the Hudson river
had over one hundred square miles of thriving oyster beds. So abundant with oysters.
Descriptions of the oyster beds have been found in writings by Tomas Campanius Holm dating
back to 1642, that described the social and economic significance of the many natural resources
of what was once known as New Sweden, surveyed from Cape Henlopen to portions of
Pennsylvania by the early Swedish settler who wrote that Delaware Bay oysters were so very
large that the meat alone is the size of our oysters shell and all, Delaware Estuary Project
(2002). Oysters thrived in a vast abundance, both in the Hudson, and Delaware estuaries up until
the end of the 19th century.
Oysters

of the Delaware Bay, and their natural habitats should belong to all the people of

Delaware, just as, The Chesapeake and their natural habitats belong to all of the people of
Virginia. They are truly part of the common wealth, former Governor of Virginia Harry F.
Byrd (Hargis and Haven (1999)). As with other common-property. Therefore, the effective
management of the Delaware Bay and River is a responsibility and function of Delawares
government.
The eastern oyster was, given the scientific name Crassostrea virginica in 1791 by
Johann Friedrich Gmelin who published the description of an oyster, most likely collected and

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sent to him from Virginia, White (2013). The eastern oyster is a versatile species of marine life,
capable to live in virtually any of the estuarine waters along coastline of North America. One
oyster is capable of filtering fifty gallons of water a day, and up to 2.5 gallons of water per hour
Shilling (2015). With an abundant population of oysters in an estuary the water clarity and
quality is improved.
Mr. Malinowski, is a second generation oysterman and an aquaculture teacher at the
Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, is working with the students from the harbor school
on a project that combines the confluence of two extraordinary narratives: giving at risk
students at the Harbor school, while these at risk students work with the faculty of the school to
save the New York Harbor through oyster gardening. (Kemp, 2010) .Eighty-five percent of the
students are from families living below the poverty level, and statistically among students most
likely to drop out before graduating high school (Kemp 2010)
Janique Moore, who was 18 at the time is evidence the school curriculum is a success.
She was one of the seniors of the high school in 2010, who lived in in East New York,
Brooklyn, the schools impact drew her to deciding whether to become an environmental lawyer
or a marine biologist. She stated But Ill admit that when I was little, I didnt think there were
animals living in these waters. I didnt even think of New York as a harbor-y kind of city.
(Kamp 2010)
Murray Fisher is the program director at the New York Harbor School. After graduating
from Vanderbilt University, he went to work for an environmental organization, Riverkeeper,
which has been committed to protecting the Hudson River. The harbor school became his
brainstorm while with the organization, for a city school, as he put it in an interview, to a
curriculum thats restoration-based and makes kids feel that theyre valuable contributing

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members of society. New York Times (2010). Oysters are the central curriculum, not just for
the historical economic reasons, but ecologically, oysters have a vital role in providing
hospitable habitats for other marine life that include various types of crabs, as well as wide
variety of fish. Mr. Fisher stated, it would give them a relationship with a marine
environment, which hardly anyone has in New York City. (Kamp, 2010).
According to Delaware Department of Education, 2014-1014 Dropout Summary Report
several school districts in all three counties have experienced the highest student dropouts. M.J.
Moyer Academy, with over 20%; Positive Outcomes, 7%; Delaware Academy of Public Safety,
5.5%; Laurel, 4.8%; Christiana and Colonial, School districts, both having little over 4 percent
of its students dropping out before graduating high school (table 12 page 12). In New Castle
County, the highest dropout risks are M.J. Moyer Academy, and Delaware Academy of Public
Safety. With next highest being Christiana HS, and John Dickinson HS both experiencing over
five percent student dropout rates. In Kent County, Caesar Rodney HS and ESHS at DSU are
above five percent, with ESHS being the highest risk. (table 12 pg 12). And, Sussex County
schools that experience the highest dropouts; Sussex Central Sr. HS, and Cape Henlopen, both
experiencing nearly at 5% of students dropping out before graduating. (Table 12, pg 12)
Using the same strategies that have been used in New York City by having a Maritime
high school. And employing marine scientists to work at the school, combining the curriculum
with what is done on the Chesapeake Bay to increase oyster populations, the best location for a
maritime high school would be where the Delaware Bays salinity levels water temperatures
allow mature oysters, and spats to have sustainable habitats to grow and reproduce. Hargis, and
Haven (1999) pp 341,342

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The ideal location for such a high school should also have some significance in the history of
Delawares maritime history, and strategically located to allow as many at risk students from all
three counties to have equal opportunities to attend the maritime school. Such a location is
unknowingly revealed in an executive summary published by Rutgers Universitys Haskin
Shellfish Research Laboratory Oyster Industry Revitalization Task Force (1999). On the
Delaware side of the Delaware Bay, oyster beds were located from the mouth, to as far north as
Bombay Hook. (pg. ix). Though one location is not included in the executive summary, another
a report by Don Maurer and Les Watling, healthy oyster beds were located at Woodland Beach,
just a few miles north of Bombay Hook, (Maurer, D and Watling, L. pg 11).
Woodland Beach was once a popular resort community with a Ferris wheel, Toboggan
rides, a boardwalk, hotel and train station that transported passengers and cargo from
Chestertown, MD to Woodland Beach, stopping in Clayton, and Smyrna DE. (Town of Smyrna
(?) and Hansen, J. in Arcadia Publishing 2013). Between Woodland Beach, and Smyrna is the
community Smyrna Landing, noted by Delaware Department of Transportation as a once
thriving maritime port, recognized for being the home of several ship building companies. The
largest vessel built at Smyrna Landing was a 600 -ton ship named the H. H. Howe, built at
Hastings Shipyard in Smyrna Landing, and approximately seven large schooners (80 to 120
tons) also sailed in to, or out of Smyrna Landing, transporting goods and passengers to other
locations along the Delaware Bay, and worldwide. It was not uncommon for commercial vessels
requiring at least seven feet of water to navigate, sailing during high tide between Smyrna
Landing and the Delaware Bay. (Delaware Department of Transportation, (date?), Pg 110, 113.
Smyrna Landing and Woodland were once bolstering with prosperity due to the resort
community of Woodland Beach that thrived from a healthy commercial and recreational fishing

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and maritime industry. Ramsey and Reilly (2002), pg 23, and Delaware Department of
Transportation pg.110
The Delaware Estuary is composed of 45 watersheds in Delaware, with the estuary
including watersheds that rise from the Catskill Mountains of New York. Many of the
watersheds in Delaware are impacted with dangerous levels of chemicals that include PCBs
(polychlorinated biphenyl), Dioxin as with other carcinogens that place the watersheds on a 303d
listing with the Environmental Protection Agency. Simply put, impaired waters are polluted
waters that do not meet water quality standards for their designated uses, such as recreation,
fishing or drinking. Simply put, impaired waters are polluted waters.
Though Woodland Beach is significant historically to the oyster populations, it also
poses an unlikely area to have a maritime school due to several problems
Access to the community is only possible during low tide. At high tide the only road in and out
of Woodland Beach is flooded by 12-18 inches of water that covers nearly a quarter mile of the
road, west of the bridge that spans over the Smyrna Landing River. This is due to several storms
that have altered the coastline of Delaware. The first in 1874, (Ramsey pg 23) and again in 1914,
when a large storm surged up the Delaware Bay that destroyed the access to the resort town.
State lawmakers refused to repair the road and left the task to repair the road to the hotel owner.
Due to the length of time it took to regain access to the resort. It soon lost the luster it once had,
where today it is little more than a ghost town. Today there is only one road in and out of the
community that during high tide To prevent road flooding, and giving adequate access to the
location the road would have to be redesigned, either elevating the portion of the road that floods
during high tide, or extending the length of the existing bridge that is spanning over the river that
eventually feeds in to the Delaware Bay.

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Funds would have to be appropriated by Delaware General Assembly, to purchase

property at Woodland beach and construct a high school capable of accommodating the
enrollment of at least 200 high school level- at risk students. I have presented this concept to
several members of Delawares General Assembly, who were seeking ways of bringing good
paying middle income jobs to Delaware. The graduates of the school would better equip
Delaware with skilled professionals for a wide variety of careers that encompass the maritime
industry. This would also allow the Delawares economic development officers, lawmakers, and
the Department of Labor to present positive arguments to businesses that manufacture products
for the maritime industry to relocate their businesses to Delaware.

There are successful natural oyster reef experiments that developed through evolutionary
trial-and-error, proven to be beneficial in well-planned reef-restoration activities that a high
school providing such programs would benefit not only the oyster resource, the public owners,
the fishing and maritime industry as well as consumers. It is vital the Delaware Bays ecology be
known to commercial and recreational finfishermen as well. Active oyster reefs harbor many
epifaunal and infaunal organisms, that include several different species of finfish and crabs, as
well as clams, oysters and various forms of barnacle, all which are valuable to the overall health
of estuarine productivity and diversity, both ecologically and economically. These habitats attract
finfishes and other species that ultimately result in a higher number marine life and their
sustainable habitats. It will also bolster the State economically by attracting people to
participating in recreational Sport-fishing. Many of the fishing maps and maritime charts have
been used on the Delaware Bay to identify many formerly-productive oyster reefs as fishing
spots. This is no accident! More importantly, restoration of a species responsible for filtering

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water, along with an increase in their associates as may occur will all be great benefits to all
Delaware citizens, as with vacationers, and the general region- and nation-wide population.

References

David Russel Schilling Adult Oysters Filter Fifty Gallons of Water Per
Day (2015) http://www.industrytap.com/adult-oysters-filter-fiftygallons-water-per-day/28760
Delaware Department of Education (2016). 2014-2015 Delaware
Dropout statistics

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3

http://www.doe.k12.de.us/cms/lib09/DE01922744/Centricity/Do
main/167/Dropout%20Summary%20Report%2020142015.revised.pdf
Delaware Department of Transportation Smyrna River Crossing Area
Pg 110, 113 (?)
http://www.deldot.gov/archaeology/3_bridges/pdf/smyrna_riv_br.
pdf
Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife Fish consumption advisories
http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/fw/Fisheries/pages/advisories.asp
x
Delaware Estuary Program, History of the eastern oyster (2002) pg 2
https://s3.amazonaws.com/delawareestuary/publications/factsheet
s/OYSTERW.PDF
Delaware Estuary Water Quality (2010) Chapter 3 pg 78-84
http://www.delawareestuary.org/pdf/TREB/Chap3.pdf
Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) Condition of the Mid-Atlantic
estuaries http://tinyurl.com/jx9r72j
Ewart, J., University of Delaware Sea Grant Marine Advisory Service and
Ford, S.E, Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Rutgers
University History and Impact of MSX and Dermo Diseases on
Oyster Stocks In the Northeast Region, pg 1 (1993) Northeastern
Regional Aquaculture Center University of Massachusetts
Dartmouth

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https://extension.umd.edu/sites/default/files/_docs/programs/aqua
culture/MSX%20and%20Dermo%20History.pdf
Hansen, J. in Arcadia Publishing (2013)
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Science and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of the
College of William and Mary in Virginia Chesapeake Oyster
reefs, their importance, destruction and guidelines for restoring
them (1999)
http://www.vims.edu/research/units/labgroups/molluscan_ecology
/_docs/HargisHaven.PDF .
Maurer, D. and Watling, L. (1973)Oyster Industry Revitalization Task
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Jersey (1999) https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgerslib/34871/
New York City (NYC) Department of Education, New York City
graduation rates class of 2014 (cohort 2010)
Orff, K. Reviving New York's rivers -- with oysters! Tedwomen (2010)
http://www.ted.com/talks/kate_orff_oysters_as_architecture#t553796
Ramsey and Reilly 2002 Delaware City Hurricane of October 21-24
1878 pg 23.
http://delawarecity.delaware.gov/files/2014/12/1878Hurricane.pdf

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State of Delaware. Delaware Watersheds (University of Delaware), 2016

http://delawarewatersheds.org/
Town of Smyrna http://smyrna.delaware.gov/110/Nature
University of Delaware, Delaware Bay report series vol. 6 The biology
of the oyster community and its associated fauna in the Delaware
Bay, (1973) http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/5187
White, Q., Exec Dir. Jacksonville Univ. Marine Science Research
Institute, River life: Oysters have interesting tastes but you
shouldnt try the ones in St. Johns
http://jacksonville.com/business/premium/columnists/2013-0627/story/quinton-white-river-life-oysters-have-interesting-tastesyou