history tells us that diseases like msx don't simply come and go and are forgotten they become part of the story of oyster farming communities have faced these challenges before and each time they've found new ways to adapt the science has improved the technology has improved and with every outbreak we've learned a little more about how to protect both oysters and the people who depend

on them i think it's helpful to sort of step a bit further back and think about some of the historical stuff you know the the early MSX disease outbreak in the 50s, 57 in Delaware Bay, 59 in Chesapeake Bay.

There were wild fisheries that were impacted by that.

There was a planting industry that was tremendous in the Virginia part of Chesapeake Bay.

I mean, it was worth many, many millions of dollars and that supported thriving communities all around the shores of the lower part of the Bay region.

And when MSX hit in 59 and 60, it basically ended that planting industry with only vestiges remaining in the upper parts of the big rivers beyond where MSX could reach.

And we still have some big players in the industry that are representing businesses that hung on in those areas.

Do the oysters die immediately, or is there a progression where they get unhealthier and unhealthier and then ultimately die? And can a farmer or a community do something to backfill or buttress that inevitability?