In 2004, STAC hosted a workshop to identify research priorities the scientific community determined were important to address in order to substantially reduce uncertainty in predicting risks and benefits of an introduction of diploid C. ariakensis to Chesapeake Bay. Following that workshop, the Maryland General Assembly required that the STAC recommendations be substantially completed before the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD-DNR) could move forward with a plan to introduce diploid C. ariakensis to Chesapeake Bay.
Both the research recommendations and the estimate of time required to conduct adequate research described in the STAC report were originally generated by the scientific research community. The membership of STAC determined it important to ascertain whether the scientific community considers the research conducted to date is adequate to predict the risks and benefits of an introduction of diploid C. ariakensis to Chesapeake Bay with a high level of certainty. The need to follow up the workshop recommendations with a survey such as this was determined soon after the release of the original STAC report.