By Rex Springston 
NEWPORT NEWS – The light of a cold dawn revealed an endangered species on the James River — waterman Rodgers Green of Gloucester. Green catches oysters the old-fashioned way, with 16-foot tongs that resemble two rakes attached like scissors. Disease, pollution and long-ago overharvesting have sunk Virginia’s oyster population to about 1 percent of a century ago. For Green, 55, thoughts of the future leave a bad taste in his mouth. "This is about the last of it," Green said aboard his 36-foot workboat, the Donna Lisa. "I can’t see nothing to encourage the younger generation to even try to get into it." … The oyster was once so abundant in the bay region that huge piles of them and their shells — variously called reefs, rocks, shoals or bars — posed hazards to boats. … In the late 1800s, Virginia watermen harvested between 6 million and 8 million bushels a year. Today, the annual catch totals a meager 20,000 to 80,000 bushels.
Oystering ‘a skeleton of its history’
