This was due to vast improvements to transportation infrastructure in the region during the 1950s when most water-borne commerce moved to highways, and the rapid decline of the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry due to decades of over-harvesting and oyster diseases Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX) and dermo that decimated the bay's oyster population.
The oystering industry reached its peak in 1955, declining by 1957 due to oyster pathogen Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX) which killed 90% of the oysters.