Cleaning the Cheasapeake

"Overharvesting, habitat destruction, disease, pollution, and sedimentation" have caused oyster industry in the Cheasapeake Bay to reduce to 1 percent of what it once was a century ago. Now a grass-roots oyster farming initiative may bring important economic and environmental benefits to Cheasapeake Bay. The industry will provide employment and "oysters act like a giant treatment plant, purifying the water as they filter it for their food."