The Sentinel Oyster Project is designed to help VIMS researchers gain specific disease information about individual test sites. Oftentimes, we need to know if Dermo or MSX (two oyster diseases that have devastated oyster populations) exist at a site before we put test strains at that site. SOP uses oyster strains with varying disease susceptibilities to help us know what disease pressure is present at each gardener test site. The gardeners also collect water quality data that gives us a better idea of the overall environmental parameters at each site.

This project is funded by grants from the Virginia Environmental Endowment and the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund