An interdisciplinary study investigates sustainable oyster harvesting practices and ecological insights in the Lower Chesapeake Estuary.
Archaeological studies of shell midden sites in the Chesapeake region indicate that Native people harvested the oyster fishery sustainably for centuries before contact. This remarkable history raises a host of questions about ecological conditions in the estuary, Native harvesting practices, and their potential management of the ‘commons’. With these issues in mind, an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists (William & Mary and Flagler College), marine biologists (Virginia Institute of Marine Science [VIMS]), and geologists (William & Mary), formed in 2021 to answer the question: Is it possible to infer which part of the estuary an oyster was harvested from based exclusively on morphological attributes and bioindicators observed on archaeological shell?
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Gallvin et al. (2022) studied this question.
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