A new, interactive data platform developed at William & Mary’s Batten School of Coastal & Marine Science and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, in collaboration with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, shows oyster data over two-and-a-half decades.

The tool was conceived as part of a Research Experience for Undergraduates project led by recent William & Mary alum Ellen Rowe, Class of 2025.

The Virginia Oyster Stock Assessment and Replenishment Archive 2.0 converts more than two decades of fishery-independent oyster survey data into a GIS-based visualization tool. The platform allows users to explore changes in variables such as oyster abundance, shell volume and harvest status across Virginia’s public oyster grounds from 1998 to 2025.

Rowe worked with data managed by Senior Marine Scientist Melissa Southworth, who works alongside Batten School and VIMS Professor Roger Mann in the Molluscan Ecology Laboratory. There was still work to be done as Rowe’s May 2025 graduation date neared, so Mann and Southworth used funds from their lab and a grant from VMRC’s Marine Fisheries Improvement Fund to hire Rowe as a GIS analyst through June 2026.

Since 1993, VIMS scientists have worked in partnership with the VMRC to conduct annual fishery-independent surveys of public oyster reefs in Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay.