Fisheries enhancement often is the goal of many restoration projects, especially in states experiencing a decline in the oyster fishery. Economic incentives to maintain an oyster fishery remain even in states with drastically reduced yields. Oyster reef restoration often is undertaken to create marketable-size oysters that are available to both recreational and commercial harvesters. An unanticipated conflict to creating reefs for harvesting is the frequent observation that harvesting can affect negatively the ecological success of the reef (e.g., breaking up clusters to retrieve marketable oysters)
Appropriate metrics: reef density; size frequency; reef size; reef architecture; fragmentation; salinity; dissolved oxygen.
