The Oyster War in the Bay of Pigs

In 1942, a new oyster bed was discovered on Swan Point up the Potomac River from Maryland. Poachers from Virginia that were known as the mosquito fleet would cross the state line to plunder oysters and then run from the police in high-speed boats. The last bloodshed in the oyster wars was in 1959 when a Virginia man named Berkeley Muse was shot by police after harvesting oysters in Maryland. Today's harvests of native oysters are less than 1% of what they were at their 1880s peak. However, the 2012 fall oyster survey reported a 93% survival rate among the state's oyster population the highest it has been since 1983.