Oyster floats fit beside private docks.
Maryland residents who want to grow oysters at their dock get a lot of help from the State. Maryland offers a tax credit of $500 per aquaculture oyster float that is designed to grow oysters at a homeowner’s pier. Families with two taxpayers are eligible for up to $1,000 in the credits. Unlike a tax deduction, tax credits can be used directly against a resident’s state income tax liability.
Marylanders grow oysters for several different reasons. Some people are strictly interested in oyster restoration and grow out oyster “spat-on-shell” during the first, most vulnerable year of the young oysters’ lives. After a year in the floating system, which protects the spat against predators such as crabs and cow-nosed rays, the oysters are placed on sanctuary bottom. Oyster growers can then purchase a fresh new batch of oyster spat-on-shell, and start over again.
A bag of spat-on-shell.
To claim the Maryland tax credit, purchase an aquaculture float on or before Dec. 31, and save your receipt. Submit Maryland Form 502CR along with your other State tax forms in April, and you can apply the credit to your 2011 state tax liability. Click here for the Maryland Form and Instructions 502CR.
For some, the idea of growing oysters and NOT eating them is outrageous. For those oyster lovers, a different system is used. They can purchase tiny individual oysters, called “cultchless” oysters – once full-grown, they’re exactly like the aquaculture oysters you’d find in a restaurant.
The difference between “spat-on-shell” and “cultchless” oysters? Spat-on-shell are small groups of oysters all grown together on a single shell. They have the advantage of being grown together as a group, work together to protect against predators, and more important – they have a built-in “structure,” holding some up off the bottom, and offering habitat for other species. Spat-on-shell are the type of oysters used in Bay-wide restoration programs.
“Cultchless” oysters are “natural triploid oysters” – selectively bred to be sterile, and thus grow faster and meatier than their cousins who spend a great deal of energy on reproduction. They are also native Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica), but bred to be sterile, for high yields and fast growth. Aquaculture oysters such as Marinetics’ “Choptank Sweets” or “Salts” are “cultchless” oysters.
It should be said that the State of Maryland does not recommend that you eat oysters grown at your dock due to the high potential for contamination – lawn fertilizers, agricultural chemicals and other pollution sources are more of a problem in waters near the shore than in waters far out in rivers and the Bay. The State would prefer that you eat oysters caught in regulated waters. Any raw seafood, however, is potentially unsafe. If you cook your oysters, the potential for contamination is reduced.
Several Maryland companies offer oyster floats. Check out Circle C Oyster Ranchers and the Johnny Oyster Seed Company. Both companies offer different types of products for growing oysters.
And although the State tax credit makes your oyster growing almost cost-free, another way to grow oysters is through the Marylanders Grow Oysters (MGO) program. A free program of the State Dept of Natural Resources, Marylanders Grow Oysters offers free cages filled with spat-on-shell to Marylanders on some 18 different tributaries throughout the Bay. In this program, the State will drop off cages on your dock usually in late summer, and you’ll maintain the young oysters throughout one growing season by swishing the cages up and down a couple of times each week. By the next summer, when the oysters have grown for a full year, the State will pick them up off of your dock, and plant the oysters on sanctuary bottom. Over 8,000 cages of oysters were grown in Maryland waters through the MGO program this year. For information about the Marylanders Grow Oysters Program, click here.
Young oysters.
And for the do-it-yourself-ers, the Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy offers instructions for building a Taylor Float – you can find that information on their website by clicking here. The Maryland State tax credit for oyster aquaculture is expected to remain in place until 2015.
Kathy Bosin distributes Johnny Oyster Seed products on the Eastern Shore.
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