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October 6, 2024

Talbot Spy

Nonpartisan Education-based News for Talbot County Community

3 Top Story Spy Journal

Grace Creek Almanac: Spanish Coast

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Here’s Becky on Camino Santiago’s coastal route. The path follows the rocky shores of the North Atlantic, just about due east of the Delmarva Peninsula by a few thousand miles.

SPANISH COAST – Our early September hiking along Camino Santiago’s coastal route carried us northward from A Guarda, near the border with Portugal. About 120 miles over seven days to Santiago de Compostela. Lots of rocky outcroppings and patches of beach, small vacation estates overlooking the Atlantic and nestled in tall dune grasses, clean and narrow stone-paved streets in small villages strung up against the sea.

Little churches and chapels of stone, houses and businesses of old stone construction–everything is built of stone and concrete including the landscape. It’s almost as if talented builders and the Tao Te Ching’s Master Carpenter planted magical stone seeds in the rocky underpinnings where they took root and grew and transformed in all kinds of minerally ways to become windows, walls, floors and roofs.

That’s right, they just grew up out of the ground that way.  (Strong coffee folks, that’s all I can tell you.) All stone except for the terracotta roof tiles.  I guess they burned up all the wood centuries ago for heat and cooking.

Entropy.  Taking the energy stored in wood and converting it for other uses. Entropy.  Releasing energy stored in walls protecting our egos so it can move to other parts of our brain for creative expression and understanding.

The Camino took us up and down coastal terrain through thick natural shrubbery and–closer to the paralleling coastal highway–across asphalt parking lots for touristy hotels, cafes and restaurants.

With August and vacation season behind us though, this was a quieter time. Also, at this distance from the final destination, not as many pilgrims greeted us with the ubiquitous Buen Camino! salutation.

Of course the closer we came to Santiago, the more populated the path became with the convergence of other Camino routes.

Halfway in the first day’s 18-mile hike, a red lighthouse perched high on a mountainous rocky outcropping in the distance north of us. While cautioning the maritime trade, the lighthouse for us also served notice that our way was about to turn eastward into Spain’s interior.

Clearly, ancient travelers afoot wanted to go eastward around that forbidding mountainous impediment as much as wary mariners wanted to stay westward of its dangers slinking down in hiding beneath the waves.

That interior section of the Camino over the much-less elevated pass imprinted the age of this journey deep and viscerally on my mind. Despite its rockiness, millions of travelers over thousands of years have helped level this often-steep section.

We picked our way over everything from gravel-sized stones to the rounded tops of vehicle-sized boulders. At one point I found myself staring at and mesmerized by wooden cart wheel-width ruts worn inches deep into solid granite. The agreeable scent of bordering tracts of cultivated eucalyptus forest further stayed my step as I considered the ruts.

If you’re thinking the same as I am, yup, you obviously know I was in a rut. But it was a pleasant rut I was in no hurry to shed.

Here was slightest but primary communication with ancients, like discovering an arrowhead in a freshly plowed field, holding it in your hand and thinking about the last hand that held it.  Communication was there in as common a thing as a rut. Ego melted in that consideration, melding my soul with countless others across the almost limitless scope of human experience.

Roman legions and their traveling communities eventually evolved into steadily northward flowing currents of pilgrims seeking a different form of treasure and higher authority.

John Denver sang about it with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: “Mountains may disappear, rivers will dry up, and so it goes with everything but love.”

But what about the rain-punctured egos I promised in the previous post? They’re up next but I’ve asked enough of you today.  If you’ve stayed with me this far, thank you for reading.  And don’t forget to spread a little love around.  A little by lots of us goes a long way.

Buen Camino!

Please notice the wooden wagon wheel ruts worn into the granite through ages of travel over this pass along the Camino Santiago. 

 

DENNIS FORNEY PHOTOS

Dennis Forney has been a journalist, editor, publisher and photographer on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972. He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Maryland’s Talbot County.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

A Midsummer Trifle on Nettles, White Ibis and Hungry Rabbits

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A blazing red sun rose over the Miles River and lit up this trawler at the docks of Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Thursday morning in St. Michaels Photo by Dennis Forney.

GRACE CREEK ALMANAC – Oppressively hot summer days can make a man lazy. But jumping off the dock, despite the water nearing bathtub temperature, revives spirits and energy levels.

Instant air conditioning, even on 95-degree days, when I climb out of the water and feel even light breezes cooling my skin.

This droughty summer has allowed jumps into Grace Creek even as we move into August.  That didn’t happen last year or the year before when prohibitive numbers of stinging sea nettles hustled me out of the water starting in early June and kept me out until the cold of late fall did the same.

From what I read, hot and dry weather favor nettle production. I’m stumped, but not complaining.

I’m also happy about increased water clarity. Maybe not as happy as the Parisians now swimming in the Seine, but happy nonetheless.

The positive impact of a billion dollars worth of infrastructure improvements on the Seine’s water quality is impressive.

During a recent trip into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, cleaner water was more noticeable there as well. Less trash too.  Dramatically less than in previous years. City officials, donning bathing suits, jumped into the harbor this summer and deemed that waterway also swimmable.

It shows what can be done when humans put determination and resources into a problem.

Unlike sea nettle numbers, deer and rabbits ravaging the leaves of our grape vines and sweet potato hills are plentiful this year.

Late one afternoon this week, I watched two sleek and healthy does, along with three spotted fawns, grazing contentedly in my yard just beyond the garden. One of the does and I engaged in a stare down.  She didn’t move other than to raise and lower one of her front legs and gently stamp a few times.

I returned the gesture but it didn’t seem to translate into anything meaningful. They all lifted their white tails and took off when I took a few steps their way.

Meanwhile a couple small rabbits – tons of rabbits this year! – watched me closely while they munched on the few remaining sweet potato leaves in the garden. My mistake was the marijuana plant thriving nearby.

The rabbits must have chewed some of those serrated leaves, ending up with a case of the munchies, and then finding sweet potato leaves particularly satisfying.

Reflecting in my mind on a flock of white ibis that came winging last week across Harris Creek–flight pattern and thin-curved bills unmistakable field marks–I found myself simultaneously hoping the stinky spray I bought at the hardware store to deter the deer and rabbits does its job.

Nature and all of its convivulations come at us from several directions. Somehow, though, it never disappoints. I’m thinking bluebirds of course and not hurricanes.

PS – Thanks for reading, and don’t look up convivulations.  I just made that one up.

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Wild-Caught Chesapeake Blue Catfish Phenomenon Booming: Thank Goodness

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Horacio Savala oversees the fileting and packaging operation for Tilghman Island Seafood’s blue catfish processing facility. Quality control is paramount with the fish on ice from the time they leave the water until placed on the fileting table.

Buena Vista Seafood in San Francisco deals in high-end seafood from all around the world. European blue lobsters, Kambatia Reef Fish from Kenya, California Purple Urchins, and Icelandic Arctic Cod, to name a few.

Now, the company has added wild-caught Chesapeake Blue Catfish to its list of offerings.

“Chesapeake blue catfish check all the boxes,” says Polly Legendre, who’s involved in sales and operations for Buena Vista.

 “They’re a great tasting fish, clean and neutral with a nice flake. They’re also an affordable dinner fish whether for white tablecloth restaurants or for the family table. That’s very important in the current state of the nation.”

Legendre said the blue cats check the sustainability box because they’re an invasive species, ”insanely prolific in terms of reproduction. Targeting them for harvest will help ease the toll they’re taking on the rockfish and blue crab populations, both iconic value species that have built the Chesapeake reputation. Tilghman Island Seafood’s processing capacity and dedication to quality control give their filets a long shelf life and are the reason we can get them from the East Coast to the West Coast in great condition. So they’re a sustainable and reliable fishery.

“Finally, and very important,” said Legendre, is the positive social impact for the Chesapeake’s fishing community. “While addressing a real environmental problem, the growing blue catfish industry is also benefiting ice providers, truck drivers, cutters and packagers in the processing facility, and providing a new opportunity for watermen feeling pressure from fewer crabs and rockfish.”

That’s particularly notable, she said, in an era when watermen, here and in other parts of the country, are suffering from more and more restrictions on their harvesting. “This blue cat fishery is adding quota and volume to fisheries, allowing fishermen to catch with abandon. That’s positive for the industry.”

Good diet = Good fish

Unlike other species of bottom-dwelling catfish, blue catfish feed throughout the water column. That diet of other fish, crabs, clams and even rockfish eggs foraged from grasses in spawning grounds, no doubt contributes to the attractive flavor profile that differentiates them from other catfish.

On Tuesday this week, Tilghman Island Seafood Company air-shipped 400 pounds of fresh blue catfish filets westward to Buena Vista, just the latest in many shipments. That’s only a sliver of the estimated 100,000 pounds of fish Tilghman Island is now processing each week for its retail, restaurant and institutional customers such as schools and food banks.

All of those thousands of pounds of fish have been on ice from the time they have been pulled from the Bay’s waters. Tilghman Island Seafood president and owner Nick Hargrove set that water-to-ice standard early on.

Tilghman Island Seafood Vice President Norm McCowan and Office Manager Becky Miller with some of the packaging used to ship orders from coast to coast. Dennis Forney Photos.

He provides insulated composite vats filled with ice for the fishermen and truckers who catch the fish and transport them to the Tilghman processing facility, beside the island’s drawbridge over Knapp’s Narrows. “Keeping the fish on ice throughout the process has become second nature to everyone.  Quality is critical to the marketing of them as Wild Caught Chesapeake Blue Catfish. They have to be marketed that way.”

In the past few weeks, Hargrove has flown twice to Boston for, first, a fisheries conference, and then last week to follow up on more potential new business.  “We have to have sales,” he said.  “I already had a military customer.  More may be on the way. You can’t produce 20,000 pounds a day if you have no customers.  All of it is wild caught and sustainable. Can’t emphasize how important that is.”

While Hargrove is off cultivating new customers, or out on local waters placing spat on shell for his oyster leasing operations, Vice President Norm McCowan manages Tilghman Island Seafood company. “Nick is a great spokesman with great  vision,” said McCowan, “and because he’s a waterman himself, he knows the other watermen and how important the seafood industry is to the region.”

McCowan said Hargrove gets calls almost every day from fishermen wanting  to sell blue cats, while he and office manager Becky Miller handle shipments, processing and packaging.  “We send out samples every day to restaurants and other seafood distributors like Buena Vista. We are meeting the demand for the market we’re creating but we know our potential market is much larger than just state and local.  Texas, for example, is the largest catfish-eating state so we know we need to penetrate the South with our product.”

Exponential growth

The Tilghman operation is a busy place, with trucks always coming and going–coming with iced fish and leaving with more vats filled with ice for the next catch.

“We’re growing exponentially,” said McCowan  “Eighty percent of our sales are frozen, with 20 percent going to the fresh market, locally and across Maryland and as far away is San Francisco. But the catfish problem in the Bay is huge.  Like Nick says, we have to eat our way out if it. We have to take out 15 million pounds of fish a year just to keep up with the current balance. We’ve processed a half million pounds of fish in the past two months–2.4 million pounds since we started a year and a half ago or so. A guy is coming in today with 2,400 pounds of fish.  At 60 to 70 cents a pound, that’s a nice check for him.”

At 30 percent yield, those 2,400 pounds of fish will produce about 800 pounds of filets.

The numbers keep coming.  Hargrove said it’s estimated that the total blue catfish biomass in the Chesapeake is about 150,000 tons, or 300 million pounds. In Virginia’s James River, where the blue catfish were first introduced as a recreational species in the 1970s, Hargrove said it’s estimated they now represent 80 to 90 percent of the river’s entire biomass. “I’ve seen as much as 200,000 pounds come out of the Potomac in one day,” said Hargrove.  “With each fish producing up to 20,000 offspring a year, they’re not going anywhere.  We’re never getting rid of them.”

According to a Department of Natural resources press release, Maryland’s watermen harvested 609,525 pounds of blue catfish in 2013. By 2023, that number had jumped to 4.2 million pounds and is still rising.

With the help of Maryland’s two US Senators, Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and First District Congressman Andy Harris, more than $3 million in federal money has been allocated to stimulate blue catfish processing facilities like Tilghman Island Seafood which is currently Maryland’s only United States Department of Agriculture-certified processing facility.

Hargrove said he is interested in expanding to another facility in Talbot County, preferably on Tilghman Island. “This is where we want to be,” said Hargrove. He said he would also be interested in adding an automatic fileting machine to his operation if he would qualify for grant money to help with the million-dollar expenditure.  “It’s a lot of money but it would enable us to process four or five times as much fish as we do now.  I can’t wait for that though. We have to keep operating and expanding as we are now.”

He said if he were able to get an automatic machine, current cutters could be redeployed downstream in the operation for other aspects such as portioning, creating more of the popular blue catfish nuggets, packaging and shipping.

Harris said he is also working with at least two other parties on the Eastern Shore who are interested in becoming blue catfish processors.

Big buy from USDA?

Meanwhile, at the federal delegation’s urging, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has recently advertised draft specifications allowing it to purchase wild-caught blue catfish filets for national-level institutions, including school systems, penitentiaries, and military installations.

The USDA requires a federal inspector to be onsite at facilities such as Tilghman Island Seafood whenever it is processing fish, to guarantee its safety and quality.  Catfish are the only category of fish for which the government’s most rigorous inspections are required.  Up until now, according to Harris, and due to lobbying pressure from southern, farm-raised catfish producers, the AMS could only buy farm-raised catfish.

The new draft specifications allowing the government purchase of wild-caught catfish are in a comment period before final distribution to potential bidders.

“The good news is they buy by the truckload,” said McCowan. “That’s about 38,000 pounds, which we can do.”

“This would be a big deal for the industry,” said Hargrove. “Eight months ago when the AMS announced plans to purchase farm-raised catfish for its programs, it was for 800,000 pounds of filets. This time around we’ll try to get into it.  We’ll bid.”

He said there’s another plus for wild caught blue catfish. According to a recent Virginia Tech study he said, the heart-healthy omega-3 oil levels–found in many fish–are several times higher in blue cats than in farm-raised catfish.

Hargrove noted that Tilghman Island Seafood has recently been certified for exporting overseas to Poland and Asia.

“There’s definitely room for growth in blue cats,” he said.

Buena Vista’s Legendre will be traveling this week from San Francisco to Tilghman Island for further reviewing, videoing, and discussions with Hargrove and his crew as she continues her plans for ramping up sales of blue catfish west of the Mississippi.

To say she’s excited about the prospects is an understatement.

“I want to sell in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle and San Diego.  The fish and its quality are important to the California chefs but they’re also concerned about the sustainability, the problems associated with invasive species, and helping the fishing communities. We need to let the nation and world know that in this case harvesting this resource is solving more problems than it is causing.  I want to get chefs on some of the cooking shows talking about the virtues of Wild Caught Chesapeake Blue Catfish.”

Upward trajectory comes to mind.

“It’s hold on to your hat with this one,” said Hargrove. “This is still just the beginning.”

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Andy Harris Talks Inflation, Russians, Section 230 and Freedom with the Spy

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Maryland First District Congressman Andy Harris

In a recent interview at his office two blocks from the capitol in Washington D.C., Congressman Andy Harris touched on a wide variety of topics ranging from Russian activity in Ukraine and Queen Anne’s County to the threat of blue catfish proliferation in Chesapeake Bay.

As elected representative for Maryland’s First Congressional District, which includes all of the Eastern Shore, Harris serves as the first level of access to the federal government for his constituents.

Here’s an abbreviated take on some of his viewpoints. Then more extensive detail on his support for the repeal of a federal law protecting interactive internet providers from liability for information posted on their sites by third parties.

As for the blue catfish problem, that will be the subject of a subsequent column.

  • Regarding his recent no vote on US aid to Ukraine, Israel and other foreign entities: “I fully support Ukraine and its military efforts against the Russian invasion. We develop great weaponry. It’s what we do best.  That’s what the bill should have been about, but it went way beyond military aid with billions and billions for humanitarian aspects there and in many other parts of the world. Every penny of that has to be borrowed. I could not vote in favor of a foreign aid package that contained non-military assistance for Ukraine and money for Gaza that could easily be stolen by Hamas—a radical, terrorist organization. Let Europe handle the humanitarian aspects.  Right now we’re borrowing at the rate of $3 trillion per year. The current US debt load is more than $34 trillion and our Gross Domestic Product is around $25 trillion so our debt load is more than our GDP. That’s unsustainable. Our budget deficit and debt are this nation’s biggest problem but there’s no political will to address it. It has to be tackled at the presidential level.  My hope is that whether Biden or Trump are elected in November, that lame duck president will use the opportunity to tackle the issue.”

  • Regarding the Russian embassy retreat property at the Corsica and Chester rivers junction in Queen Anne’s County:  The property and its extensive improvements – owned by the Russian government – have been vacant since late 2016 when the Obama administration evicted the Russians citing election interference and espionage activity.  Responding to a request from this constituent, Harris said his staff is working on getting a response from the US Department of State regarding current status of that property.  “An investigation found no election interference by the Russians in the 2016 election so that should no longer be a reason for keeping the Russians off the property,” said Harris. “But if there is a security issue related to espionage or something else, that argument certainly can be made. Of course the Russians have an embassy in Washington D.C. so they don’t need to go to the Eastern Shore for espionage.”

  • Top three issues he’s hearing about from constituents: “First and definitely inflation.  That’s at the macro level, across this district and the nation. The cost of everything from gas to groceries and everything else. Second would be crime, particularly in the more urban areas.  And third, particularly in the more northern counties of the district, development.  But people recognize that as more of a local, land-use issue.” In addition to all nine Eastern Shore counties, the First District includes Harford County and parts of Baltimore County.

  • The roots of his political leanings: “I’m the son of immigrant parents from European countries that eventually became Communist. Places where freedoms and liberties were lost and are still gone.  I want to see our liberties and freedoms preserved. Too often they’re taken for granted.”

Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows

“Section 230 is a section of Title 47 of the United States Code that was enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 . . and generally provides immunity for online computer services with respect to third-party content generated by its users.” – Wikipedia.

As mentioned in the above quotation, federal law dictates that interactive internet sites managed by hundreds of companies great and small cannot currently be held liable for items – true, false or otherwise – posted on their sites by real or fake third parties.

“The companies claim they are not publishers but simply billboards where people can post whatever they want. But we know these companies are monitoring and limiting access to these digital billboards and as such are acting as publishers.  They’re making editorial and publishing decisions and they should be subject to the same liability that every other publisher is liable to,” said Harris. “They shouldn’t be hiding behind the cloak of Section 230. Just as newspapers are responsible, they should be responsible too. I support removing Section 230 altogether or at least carefully specifying that you really can’t interfere with what’s being posted on your sites if you want to be exempted from the liability that publishers would normally be subjected to.”

This old advertising message, just a few blocks from the Capitol and offices for the federal House of Representatives, offers its own subtle form of lobbying. Dennis Forney photo.

Harris said companies such as Google – now called Alphabet – and other providers are spending millions and millions of dollars on Capitol Hill to fight efforts to sunset Section 230. “It’s astounding what they’re spending. They know the implication of removing Section 230.  It will cost them . . . they will have to stop limiting access or be subject to huge liability issues.  For them this is an economic argument: ‘We’re going to spend tens of millions of dollars lobbying Capitol Hill to save billions of dollars in legal liability.’”

Harris provided what he termed an insider’s viewpoint. “This is one of those instances that truly lives out the saying that politics makes for strange bedfellows.  You have very progressive Democrats combining with very conservative Republicans saying we have to eliminate Section 230 protections.  It’s taking longer but in the end I think we will be limiting those protections.  It will be arduous.”

Representatives Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey, and Cathy McMorris Rogers, a Republican from Washington, are currently among the leaders of the effort.

Harris, a conservative Republican, said he personally isn’t feeling the lobbying pressure. “I think they know where I stand on this. This isn’t fertile territory for them.”

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972. He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Two men in Space, Two Centuries Apart at Annapolis

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This gravestone for Astronaut Capt. James Arthur Lovell Jr, stands in the US Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis. Though he is still alive at 96, the stone was placed following the death of his wife, Marilyn. Photos by Dennis Forney

During two recent regional hikes, Becky and I came across the graves of two American heroes, distinctive but also distinctively different.

We stumbled across the first grave while wending our way through the US Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis. Cemeteries provide great windows into history.

James Arthur Lovell, Jr., a captain in the US Navy and 1952 academy graduate, flew into space four different times. Along with Frank Borman and William Anders, they were the first humans to orbit the moon in a 1968 mission. According to a Wikipedia article: “He then commanded the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970 which, after a critical failure en route, looped around the Moon and returned safely to Earth.” That flawed mission became the basis of Lovell’s 1994 book titled Lost Moon and the subsequent Apollo 13 film.

Those experiences gave him the perspective leading to the inscription on the reverse side of his gravestone.

Although the stone is in place, Lovell, born in 1928 and now 96, continues to orbit the sun above ground in his earthly existence.  The stone was placed following the death of his wife, Marilyn, whose remains are interred where Lovell will ultimately be buried.

We sought out the second distinctive gravestone, that of Joshua Thomas, in the cemetery of St. John’s Methodist Church on Deal Island in Somerset County’s Tangier Sound. Thomas was known as the Parson of the Islands because of his fervently dedicated preaching throughout the islands of the Chesapeake archipelago.

We motored down through that chain of islands last week aboard Nellie Peach. Dividing Tangier Sound from the main stem of the Bay, the archipelago includes, among others, Hoopers, Bloodsworth, Deal, Smith, Tangier, and, southernmost, Watts, islands.

This historical marker for Joshua Thomas stands across the highway from where he is buried at St. Johns’s Methodist Church on Deal Island.

A deeply visceral spirituality–evidenced by excited shouting and leaping during camp meeting services he organized and directed–charged Thomas’s soul. It was an electricity he knew with complete certainty emanated from the God he believed inhabits the heavenly space surrounding us in the infinite universe.

An accomplished sailor and waterman, Thomas made his island orbits in a custom-built, two-masted log canoe named The Methodist.

He sallied out from his home on Tangier Island to the other inhabited islands for camp meetings during the time  Tangier was occupied by an estimated 12,000 British troops during the War of 1812.

This illustration showing Joshua Thomas preaching to British troops on Tangier Island in 1814 is from Adam Wallace’s 1872 biography of the parson published by the Methodist Home Journal in Philadelphia.

An official historical marker stands along the highway near his burying place.  It celebrates his bold and fulfilled prediction during a prayer service the British asked him to lead just before they sailed northward for their ill-fated attack on Baltimore.

The soldiers had succeeded a few weeks previously in navigating the Potomac and burning the young nation’s capital. However–as our national anthem attests–their cockiness evaporated before the guns of Fort McHenry and the determination of Baltimore’s citizens in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

When the diminished and defeated forces made their way back to Tangier, it’s reported they told Thomas they should have listened to his warnings which he said had come to him from heavenward through the voice of God.

The cover of the Thomas biography features this drawing of the log canoe the preacher sailed to various Chesapeake Islands through his years of service.

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Dribs and Drabs: Oysters, Wisteria, Locusts and Crabs

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Florida and Caribbean version of the blue land crab. Photo US Government.

GRACE CREEK ALMANAC – It’s been just about exactly a year since my writing about blooming locust trees and their relationship with crabs.

Locusts, once valued by farmers for livestock fence posts, are blooming bold now, signaling the first shed of the 2024 crab season. Photo by Dennis Forney

Watermen here in the mid-Atlantic forever have equated locust blooms with the season’s first run of peeler crabs.  The first shed. That means soft crabs are right behind. Some say it might have to do with the fact that this point in spring when locusts bloom coincides with water temperatures reaching a level that triggers the first shed. Good a guess as any; probably better than most.

Trotliners and potters here in the middle Chesapeake have just finished the first month of the 2024 season that opened April 1. It takes a while for the harvest to pick up speed but until the supply ticks up a good bit the crabs being caught are bringing watermen $200 per bushel at the dock. When they’re catching, they’re smiling.

Bushel-loaded refrigerated trucks are leaving daily heading eastward to Ocean City, westward to Baltimore and other regional venues to meet the needs of feasters jonesing to crack fresh and spicy steamed crabs after a long winter.

Results of the winter crab dredge survey, a good predictor for how strong a harvest we may see this year, usually get published in May. Stay tuned.

Wisteria vine blooms in an Eastern Shore woods. Photo by Dennis Forney

As for wisteria – their vines and purple flowers currently festooning area woods – there’s no relationship that I know of between those blooms and oysters. But we do know that the wild oyster season for the year concludes a month or so before wisterias typically bloom.

The close of the wild season for oysters is usually welcomed by watermen cultivating leased oyster beds.  They are allowed to harvest and sell their oysters any time of the year. This time of year usually sees bushel prices at least $10 more than during the wild season which makes oyster farmers happy.  Simple matter of supply and demand.  Demand for oysters is still decent amidst tightening supplies.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources spokesman Gregg Boortz provided the following information about harvests on leased bottom in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake: “Maryland currently has 466 leases with 7,478.48 acres of state waters leased for commercial shellfish aquaculture; 6,964.32 acres of that total for submerged land leases (growing shellfish directly on the seafloor) and 514.16 acres of water column leases (growing shellfish in cages or other containers in the water).”

Figures he supplied show that Maryland harvests of aquacultured oysters have grown steadily from 3,340 bushels in 2012 to 94,257 bushels in 2022.

“2023,” he said,” is still being completed but looks to be on track with the upward trend of the past few years.”

Back to blue crabs for a final note, but not in the Chesapeake.

Signs in Virgin Islands National Park, St. John. Photo by Dennis Forney

On a winter trip to St. John in the US Virgin Islands back in February, a couple of us hiking the low mountains of the Virgin Islands National Park came across a NO CRAB HUNTING sign. Hadn’t heard of crab hunting before but it apparently refers to the large blue land crabs that clatter across remote roads at night.

Here’s what the Wild South Florida website says about blue land crabs that haunt mangrove regions abundant in Florida and other parts of the Caribbean: “The blue land crab is exploited as a food source throughout the Bahamas and the Caribbean,” according to UF/IFAS. “They are particularly popular in the Caribbean, thrown in a pot with some seasoning, allegedly tasting a lot like the blue crabs found in Chesapeake Bay.”

I’ve never tasted a blue land crab so will reserve judgment on the quality of their flavor. But as we denizens of the mid-Atlantic region know, the meat of this region’s blue crabs is pretty hard to beat.

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Move Over Horny Goat Weed, Here Comes Pollen

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With liberty and pollen for all. Photos by Dennis Forney

GRACE CREEK ALMANAC – So, this week’s hot news involves the unique, annual, and sublimely quiet spring storm sifting everywhere around us.

No, not Stormy Daniels and the Trumpster. That situation’s neither sublime nor quiet. Rather, as you’ve probably guessed from the pictures, I’m writing about the pine pollen storm now in full fettle.

The man sitting at the C-Street bar in St. Michaels, between bites of his egg and sausage breakfast sandwich, chased with the Lord’s Liquor (H2O), didn’t waste any words in his opinion of nature’s version of Dr. Suess’s oobleck. “I see absolutely no redeeming value in pine pollen.”

I was allowing how there must be some nutritional value of pollen, maybe as a fertilizer or something like that to give it a smidgen of positive patina.

Didn’t want to be disputatious, being in the morning and all. Not good for the digestion. But, it stirred my curiosity, like the swirl of pine pollen on puddles and other local waters.

Pine candles ready to burst.

Turns out that pine pollen is even available commercially for treating a whole host of physical issues. Green stuff can be made with that green stuff.

Given that pollen is the male fertilizing component for pine and other plant reproduction, it’s not surprising to find “boosting testosterone” nestled in the list of potential health purposes of pine pollen discussed at healthline.com.

Here’s just a smattering straight from the site:

“Pine pollen has long been used for a variety of health-related purposes, such as supplementing the diet or adding to foods, slowing aging, reducing fatigue, boosting testosterone, and treating a variety of conditions, including colds, constipation, and prostate disease.

“Some of the proposed health benefits of pine pollen are anecdotal. This means they’re derived from personal testimony rather than research studies. “However, scientists have been actively investigating the potential benefits of pine pollen. … Pine pollen has the following nutrients: protein, fatty acids, carbohydrates, minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, and vitamins, such as B vitamins and vitamin E.”

Given all that, is it too far-fetched to think that ingesting a couple of teaspoons of pine pollen could, after all, be an aid to digestion or even a COVID-19 deterrent?

If nothing else, the subtle green of pine pollen could be pretty, sprinkled atop a cup of creamed coffee like some of those fancy baristas do. Think spin art or a Rorschach test.

And, you have to admit, there’s something poetically romantic about the thought of a few dashes of pine pollen spread, perhaps in a chevron design, across a succulent set of shad roe. Spring and rebirth.  Isn’t it grand?

Go outside now and breathe deeply. Ahhh – feel that lift?

Seek and ye shall find.
Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

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March Rains Way Above Normal; April Likely Bringing More

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A saturated ditch reflects the trunk and tops of loblolly pines. Dennis Forney photo

“Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote …”

GRACE CREEK ALMANAC – Even Geoffrey Chaucer, 600 years ago in the prologue to his Canterbury Tales, was writing about the rain.

With another three inches this week, counting Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s downpours, soggy ground has grown even more saturated. These rains, however, certainly aren’t addressing any droughty March.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Sarah Johnson of the Mt. Holly, New Jersey office says the pattern we’ve seen since about mid-December has brought a steady number of really wet systems with little time between. “Not much time for the ground to dry out,” she said.

December brought us 7.7 inches, and January pounded us with another 6.4 inches – both well above average. February brought a short reprieve with only 1.5 inches before the water machine cranked back up again.

March’s rainfall for the mid-Delmarva Peninsula averaged as much as four to five inches above normal, she said, and the long-range forecast for April suggests the month will also likely bring above-normal amounts of rain.

This week brought the year’s first official warnings for severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. Wednesday’s rumblings confirmed those warnings though tornadoes stayed mercifully away.  The last thing we need is high winds testing sodden roots and toppling tall loblollies ringing this low-country section of Talbot County.

Keep the chainsaws fueled up, powered up and handy.

The trench I have dug in our heavy clay soil for new grape vines is filled with water. No sense in planting them yet.  They would just float away.

I won’t have to worry about watering them, or the blackberry and raspberry plants also awaiting planting.

Johnson said a relatively strong El Niño system in the Pacific, which typically drives rainier weather across the US, is starting to ease.  The steady series of storms that have been coming across the south and then chugging off to the northeast are part of that scenario.  “It’s notable that these storms tracking near or just west of the ocean also tend to have a lot of moisture,” she said.

Those storms have also brought us a lot of easterly winds driving high-tide events along the coast, here in Grace Creek, and elsewhere along the Chesapeake.

The weakening El Niño, she said, should ease us into more of a neutral situation by late spring and early summer.

My landscaper friend Tom said farmers he knows are tearing their hair out, waiting impatiently to get into their fields. “But as wet as it is, at least we’re not in a drought,” he said with customary optimism. “There’s nothing more debilitating than a drought.”

With the possibility of a La Niña scenario in the Pacific next winter, Johnson said, we could see an opposite pattern with drier conditions and fewer of this winter’s back-to-back rain and wind events.

In the meantime, April may continue piercing our soils to the root.

PS: As a man of faith, I went ahead and planted the berry plants anyway. If Noah gets the call, I’m confident that along with the animals, he’ll also snag my berry plants and drag them aboard for the next post-alluvial era.

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

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Grace Creek Almanac: Bradford Scourge, Orion, Musk’s Starlink and Frost

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Blossoming Bradford pears, now considered an invasive species, threaten to crowd out other native species, such as redbud, as well as the bike and pedestrian path that edges along St. Michaels. Dennis Forney photo

Springtime, as this week clearly illustrates, is a dynamic time on the Eastern Shore.

With temperatures fluctuating between the mid-70s and mid-30s, it makes me worry about the tender green sprouts of the Amish Snap Peas coming up in my garden.  I count on the afternoon sun to keep warming the soil and encouraging the peas.

Throughout the Eastern Shore landscape, Bradford pears are brightening hedgerows and roadsides, and residential yards. with their audacious white blossoms.  One of the first springtime bloomers in Maryland, they’re doing their best to outshine the more elegant and colorful redbuds also decorating the landscape.

Just about the time of the bicentennial of the American Revolution in 1976, Bradford Pears were a darling of landscape architects and urban planners. Many towns and cities used them to reinvigorate their downtown streets with plantings along sidewalks.  Now, however, like blue catfish, Bradford pears are strenuously labeled an invasive species, a rapidly growing and quickly spreading scourge.

They are infamous for their weak crotches – hardly a flattering characteristic – which can lead to branches splitting and falling on unwary pedestrians enjoying their shade.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service advises: “New hybrids produce viable seeds through cross-pollination with the Bradford cultivar. The descendants are aggressively invading natural and disturbed open areas, displacing native plant communities and disrupting natural succession.”

University of Maryland’s Cooperative Extension Service suggests the following natives as better choices for flowering spring trees:  “Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus), Serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.), and Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).

In the meantime, these species are being crowded out by the bully Bradfords.

HERE ON THE CREEK, flocks of bluebill ducks, also known as scaup and blackheads, and a smattering of canvasbacks have been joining the perennial Canada geese in recent weeks.  They come and go with no particular pattern. I don’t expect them to stay around for long.

Loons, with their mournful swoonings have also been stopping by, sharing the soundscape with early ospreys checking out nesting sites and passing through in spring migration.

Above us, the warrior constellation Orion is swinging further around to the southwest and west before he  makes his warmer weather disappearance.

I hope Elon Musk’s train of Starlink satellites makes its appearance, going in the opposite direction, as the days keep lengthening.

Seeing them rings a sense of possibility into his goal of enabling humans to one day become a multi-planetary species. The Cristopher Columbus of our day.

I’m reading Walter Isaacson’s excellent biography of Musk and his dizzying and transformational character. (Thanks for the recommendation Eric.) It’s great background material to be reading as so many world events of which he is playing a pivotal role unfold around us on a daily basis.

ON THE WATERFRONT, oystermen are closing out the wild commercial season which ends this year March 29. They’re switching out their dredging and tonging gear for the trotlining and potting rigs used for crabbing.  That seasons April 1

IN THE MEAN TIME, I’ll keep my eyes leveled mostly toward our own planet, greening more each day in our hemisphere. Dynamic spring offers such a feast for the eyes.

Robert Frost writes in his poem Swinger of Birches, perhaps presaging Musk’s restlessness:

“I’d like to get away from earth awhile,
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return.  Earth’s the right place for love:
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.”

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist, and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

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Sanctuary Changes Inching Amidst Astounding Oyster Efforts

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My recent article about pressure to change oyster sanctuary boundaries In Maryland quickly grew into a torrent of criticism, dialogue, and additional official comments, corrections, and clarification of issues discussed.

I will present some of that information here while also thanking those who took the time to help me further understand the complexity of issues swirling around an organism as humble as an oyster.

The magnitude of the effort to continue revitalizing the Chesapeake Bay oyster population involves thousands of people, hundreds of public and private organizations, and the expenditure over the past several years of millions and millions of public and private dollars. It is both mind boggling and inspiring.

See the chart and map below to get a feel for some of that effort, especially the list of participating organizations.

Sanctuary Boundaries

Changes may be coming to sanctuary boundaries as requested, but it won’t be happening quickly.

At a public hearing last week in Annapolis, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials said part of legislation sponsored by Sen. Johnny Mautz and Delegate Chris Adams giving the state sole authority to change sanctuary boundaries is no longer necessary.  That’s based on an updated Oyster Management Plan announced recently.

Watermen organizations sought the change with an eye toward being able to work some of the thousands of acres of oyster sanctuaries now off limits.

Gregg Bortz, DNR media relations manager, sent an email to explain:

“Based on the updated Oyster Management Plan going into effect, DNR can move boundaries of unrestored oyster sanctuaries, but right now we do not have specific plans or a timetable on identifying any changes. We need to engage in the full public process and apply the best available science to determine what we may do with those unrestored sanctuaries that are not producing oysters. These are areas that were acknowledged to be poor for oysters, with little to no habitat when they were created; they need some sort of investment to become productive, which could include large-scale restoration, aquaculture, or some plan for wild harvest. Going forward, the Oyster Advisory Commission would need to discuss any proposals for changes. DNR would listen to recommendations before taking any action.”

Regarding a request in the Mautz/Adams legislation to open certain public grounds in Eastern Bay for commercial power dredging, no action has been taken.

“The department is opposed,” said Bortz. “The area does not receive sufficient spat set to support the use of power dredge. We have studies that show power dredging is not sustainable in areas where there is limited oyster recruitment, and it would also remove valuable spawning age oysters.”

On Tuesday this week, Mautz said the overall legislation giving DNR sole authority to make boundary changes without a requirement for agreement from several other non-governmental agencies is being amended. “Eastern Bay power dredging is likely to be removed, DNR will also remove its opposition, and it will move forward.”

Restored vs. unrestored sanctuaries

Regarding productivity found in samplings taken from 51 sanctuaries, last week’s article did not distinguish between restored sanctuaries and unrestored sanctuaries as it should have. Restored sanctuaries include those in Harris Creek, and Tred Avon and Little Choptank rivers, and several others down the Bay.

Those being restored, with infusion of shells, little oysters and other bottom improvements for spat attachment, have received the bulk of the millions spent for improving oyster populations.

Surveys of those sanctuaries show success, with sampling showing productivity meeting or exceeding goals. The restored sanctuaries mentioned have received large infusions of federal dollars and as such are permanently off limits for harvesting.

The intent is for them to become productive and self-sustaining beds which will spin-off lots of larvae and small oysters for the benefit of other commercial wild and cultivated beds in surrounding waters.  That would be good for the economy and the ecology of the Chesapeake since oysters are such significant filters for the Bay.

Unrestored sanctuary beds showing little or no productivity in recent years would likely be candidates for boundary changes allowing watermen to work them with possible restoration efforts that could lead to future commercial harvesting.

Restoration work is carried out by the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Maryland Oyster Restoration Interagency Workgroup, a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District, the Oyster Recovery Partnership and the Maryland DNR.

Siltation without cultivation

Bortz provided this rejoinder from DNR Senior Shellfish Biologist Mitch Tarnowski regarding the oft-stated concern that uncultivated oyster beds lead to smothering and death of oysters from accumulating silt:

“Oysters evolved over the millennia to live in silty estuarine environments. They have coping mechanisms such as building elevated reefs to stay above the muddy floor of the sea bottom, avoiding smothering. Sanctuaries, by prohibiting harvesting, are attempting to rebuild this natural relief. Opening sanctuaries to rotational harvests would (a.) knock down any elevation so far attained on these reefs and (b.) negate these areas as sanctuaries since the point is protect these reefs from oystering activity.

“Surveys have found no evidence of smothering in these sanctuaries, which are over ten years old. The notion that siltation from the Susquehanna River via the Conowingo dam impacts oysters in the Choptank tributaries, or St. Marys River, or Tangier Sound and its tributaries is simply incorrect. If there is a storm event producing a large sediment load, the plume is usually confined to the upper bay; even if it sneaks below the Bay Bridge the plume doesn’t stray outside of the mainstem of the Bay. Beyond the siltation issue, the shell habitat is generally better in these sanctuaries, while shell habitat in some of the heaviest worked areas has been thinned out through mechanical harvesting.”

Reaching 10 billion oyster target

Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently announced that its Chesapeake Oyster Alliance (COA) has recorded a new total of 6 billion oysters directly added to the Bay since 2017.

The announcement notes that “COA’s count aims to include all oysters directly added to the Bay and its tributaries through restoration and aquaculture. These efforts have now surpassed the halfway mark to the group’s goal to promote adding 10 billion new oysters to the Bay by 2025.

“The majority of contributions toward the 10 billion oyster goal come from major restoration initiatives in Maryland and Virginia targeted towards 11 Bay tributaries, which are on track to be completed by 2025.

“We’re seeing an exciting oyster renaissance on the Bay, from massive tributary scale efforts down to widespread citizen involvement and public awareness.  At least six billion oysters have been added to the Chesapeake in recent years thanks to heroic work by Maryland and Virginia, federal partners, and COA aquaculture and restoration partners,” said Tanner Council, COA Senior Manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.”

“Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) founded the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance in 2018 to spark momentum and innovation to bring back oysters from historically low levels. COA has grown to include more than 110 nonprofits, academic institutions, businesses, and aquaculture operations. Together, these partners advocate for accelerating oyster restoration, science-based fisheries management and expanding the oyster aquaculture industry throughout the Bay.”

Economy and ecology

State officials testifying at last week’s House hearing, and in comments following last week’s article about sanctuary changes, were careful to emphasize that DNR employees serve as “stewards of this public trust resource.”

Referring to increasing oyster populations, they noted that they have an obligation to not only protect the economic interests of the state’s watermen but also the ecological interests of the six million residents of the Chesapeake Bay region who will benefit from an increasingly healthy Bay system.

Jim Mullin, executive of the Maryland Oystermen Association, told legislators at last week’s hearing that the failing, unrestored sanctuaries present an opportunity: “We need to take shells up from other parts of the Bay and seed these failing sanctuaries,” he said.  “Funds should be moved to pilot projects where we could use our own equipment and personnel. We want to be part of the solution.”

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist, and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.