Background: Smart management of our natural resources is important if we hope to have access to them into the future. This study looked at how oyster beds have changed size in three different regions of the United States from a historical baseline, measured between 1878 and 1935, and modern conditions, measured between 1968 and 2010.

The graph below shows the percent of bays covered by oysters historically, and in modern times.  Each pair of box plots shows how the modern oyster bed areas have changed relative to the historical values.

Data Source: