There is snow in the air this holiday season and even better there are plenty of oysters in the ponds. This has been a good year for winter’s favorite bivalve. Tisbury Great Pond wild oysters are being sold at the market as a new report suggests a promising future for oysters in Edgartown Great Pond.

Rick Karney, director of the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, authored the 10-page report, A Program to Restore the Oyster Populations in Edgartown Great Pond, outlining successful efforts this past year in getting the pond to produce lots of juvenile oysters.

“The incredible natural set we observed this summer in Edgartown Great Pond is likely the result of our restoration efforts in conjunction with ideal environmental conditions,” Mr. Karney wrote. “Our seeding efforts have increased the number of potential broodstock in the pond to a critical mass capable of unleashing vast numbers of gametes resulting in millions of oyster spat under the correct environmental conditions.”

Last summer’s environmental conditions were perfect for Vineyard oyster spat. Tisbury Great Pond had a record year. The small microscopic shellfish painted the bottom of all but a few places in the great pond.

Behind the success of both Edgartown Great Pond and the Tisbury Great Pond oysters was an aggressive effort by town shellfish departments, working with the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group and others, to ensure that when those animals spawned, they did so under the best of conditions. The report indicates that the future of oysters is dependent on husbandry of the resource.

Mr. Karney’s report outlines efforts made in Edgartown Great Pond this past summer, together with work done in the last two years. And it included new ideas: “We believe this year’s record-breaking hatchery spawning event was likely due to the salinity acclimation we accomplished by holding the broodstock in the Chappy Nursery for a period prior to spawning. Holding the broodstock at Chappy also allowed for a second spawning...”

“Twenty-six female oysters spawned on June 29 and yielded a record amount of almost 300 million eggs. This was far too many for the culture capacity of the hatchery.”

Most of the eggs were released in Edgartown Great Pond and Tisbury Great Pond. The rest, 36 million, were kept to be cultured at the hatchery.

The project involved not only encouraging resident oyster adults to spawn in the pond and in the hatchery, but also planting 120-cubic yards of culch on the bottom of the pond early in the season. Oysters in the microscopic stage swim seeking out hard bottom to reside; culch are broken pieces of shells that are ideal for the planting of oysters.

So broken quahaug shells, free of charge from a Rhode Island firm, were transported to the Island. The town highway department provided the equipment to move the culch. Members of the town shellfish department and volunteers spread it from a small barge.

“A large amount was planted in Slough Cove in response to heavy sets observed there in 2009,” according to the report. “Shell was also placed in Turkeyland Cove, off King Point and a small amount on the west side of Job’s Neck Cove. These areas all experienced successful sets in 2009 and again this year.”

Hatchery staff and volunteers took water samples and moved shellfish gear into strategic places.

Mr. Karney said a core crew of five worked on the project, with as many as 30 others involved at some level. Part of the success of project, Mr. Karney said, was getting people involved. “When you bring people on board there is more ownership. The more people on the pond aware of the effort and involved and willing to support the project, the better,” Mr. Karney said. “That is part of any kind of successful management plan.”

There is still potential trouble ahead for the Vineyard’s wild oyster fishery. A disease called Dermo still resides in Edgartown Great Pond and Tisbury Great Pond. It is only harmful to shellfish; years ago Dermo caused the collapse of the fishery.

Over the years, Mr. Karney and others have worked on helping a more Dermo-resistant strain of oyster come along, and they’ve been mostly successful.

Mr. Karney said most oysters are doing well in both ponds because they are resistant to the disease. There is some evidence that some are not.

The report states the disease is still in residence: “Elevated levels of Dermo in the oysters this year give us reason for concern and still present a major obstacle to maintaining adequate numbers of oysters in the pond to restore and maintain good water quality.”

Any evidence of the disease’s impact on animals won’t be seen until late spring.

In a recent interview, Mr. Karney said, “We’ll never be able to eradicate Dermo but we can learn to live with it. On the positive side, there is evidence we are going to have a cold winter and that will knock the disease back.”

There is more good news. The project has been funded for another year. Mr. Karney said an anonymous donor has come forward with an additional $33,000 to fund the project for another year. “We want more oysters out there,” Mr. Karney said.

It takes an oyster three years to reach harvestable size in the wild. Mr. Karney said they want to create a number of good year classes of oysters, so that in years ahead there can be more certainty about the overall health of the shellfish. The pond will benefit too from more young oysters spawning and taking residence there; the main goal is improving water quality, but to get that by cultivating a healthy, productive population of oysters.

For those who want to eat oysters now, there are plenty at the market coming from Tisbury Great Pond. A portion of the West Tisbury side was open to commercial fishing recently and will likely stay open at least through New Year’s Eve.

Mr. Karney, who also sits on the West Tisbury shellfish committee, said the area on the eastern end of the great pond, near Long Point, is where the fishermen have been allowed to go. The committee opened that area because it holds an abundance of adults and a lack of seed, he said. The seed spawned earlier this year needs to be protected from disturbance from the fishermen’s drags. The committee is reviewing how long they’ll keep the pond open into the new year.

Louis Larsen at the Net Result fish market in Vineyard Haven is seeing the best of the commercial season. He said the wild oysters look really good.

Consumers have a choice this holiday season of buying cultured Vineyard oysters which are available all year round, and wild oysters that are only available in a limited season this winter.

The retail price on the Vineyard is around a dollar apiece for cultured versus 50 cents for wild. Mr. Larsen said: “Mother Nature works cheaper. They are nice fluffy white meats, perfect for stuffing.”