It’s been a good year for oyster reproduction in Great Bay. That’s good news for those who’ve heard nothing but bad news as oyster habitat has declined for more than a decade.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s 2006 oyster reproduction monitoring effort, now underway, suggests that the fishery might see some recovery over the next few years.

“After gathering and analyzing data from three of the major beds, it is apparent that this year has been an extraordinarily productive and successful spawning year for Great Bay oysters,” says Bruce Smith, a marine biologist with Fish and Game’s Marine Fisheries Division, in a press release.

Over the past 15 years, annual surveys have measured the populations of oysters on the major Great Bay beds. The current decline extends beyond a typical population boom-and-bust cycle—the number of harvestable oysters has declined 95 percent since 1993, according to the New Hampshire Estuaries Project.

Reasons for the decline include infection by MSX and Dermo, diseases that weaken oysters and either kill them outright or make them more susceptible to other hazards. These diseases have devastated the oyster beds in New Hampshire, as well as in the Chesapeake Bay and other mid-Atlantic estuaries, according to Fish and Game.

Oysters rely on spatfall, or numbers of young oysters successfully beginning life on an oyster bed, to replenish their numbers. The spat are usually ready for harvest in about four years. While the 15-year period of study has shown an erratic supply of young oysters each year, this year’s monitoring results were dramatically positive.

In 2006, total spatfall—measured from collection by divers of all the shell material in a fixed sample frame (a quarter meter square)—is in the range of 200 per frame, according to Smith. Previous high numbers have rarely exceeded a tenth of that, and frequently have been in single figures, according to the press release.

First taken by early Native Americans, and later by European settlers, oysters provide a recreational fishery for hundreds of New Hampshire license holders, according to Fish and Game.