Maryland’s oyster industry employs thousands of people and pumps tens of millions of dollars into the state’s economy. It also factors heavily into the culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region – the people involved, their varied unique and beautiful vessels, the cuisine of fried, stewed, roasted, raw, pied, shootered, Rockefellered and casinoed oysters to name just a few.
People with their hands in it include boat builders, welders, blacksmiths and fabricators, shuckers and buyers, bottom leaseholders and others involved in aquaculture, dock-owning cage growers, restaurant owners and employees, and of course the consumers who enjoy the fruits of all those others’ labors.
None are closer to the resource than the watermen who tong, dredge and dive through the worst weather of the year to harvest and cultivate. Like canaries in coal mines, they are often at the leading edge of when things are going well in the environment where oysters grow, and when things are not going so well.
In the meantime, the oysters do their best to clean our waterways through their magnificent filtering systems.
The humble oyster, its beauty rugged and dirty on the outside, clean, pearlesque and luminescent on the inside, deserves to be elevated on a throne, crowned, and celebrated for the amazingly positive role it plays in our lives.
When all the consuming is done, the oysters’ marvelous packages – the ultimate in recycling – are returned to the waters that nurtured them, to become the Gaudi-like homes of millions of new baby oysters.
This year’s shell-planting program ended on Wednesday this week. The program involves shucked shells returned to natural bars up and down the Chesapeake to provide optimum bottom for future oyster production. Members of the different county waterman committees advise the state on where they want shells planted and then the captains and their crews load up down in Virginia and return north to jet them overboard.
I sent questions last week to Chris Judy, director of DNR’s shellfish division, to gain a better perspective on this year’s shelling. Jodi Baxter, shellfish deputy director, provided the answers.
Here you go. I hope you enjoy learning about this amazing fishery as much as I am. And thanks to Chris and Jodi for the information.
How much money is being spent for shelling operations this spring?
A grant from MDOT plus revenue from the oyster bushel tax and commercial oyster harvest surcharge is used to conduct planting projects annually on public fishery oyster habitat. This amount varies annually but is a total of $2.4M for the spring/summer of 2021. This funding goes towards planting shell, hatchery spat-on-shell, and (if available) wild natural oyster seed on public fishery oyster habitat.
Just the shell planting is estimated to cost about $1.1 million in 2021 ($4 dollars per bushel to buy the shell plus $2 per bushel to transport and plant the shell).
Is it just a 15-day window for loading and unloading?
Planting shell corresponds to the time period right before oysters start spawning so there is clean substrate for settlement of larvae. The length of time for shell planting depends on how much shell is available to be purchased and how many planting vessels are used.
How many different vessels and captains are involved in the operation?
This year four vessels (called run boats) are being used. These are large vessels able to hold more than 1,000 bushels of shells at one time.
How does DNR evaluate the success of the program?
The department conducts an Annual Fall Oyster Dredge Survey and samples many of the sites planted with shell. Spat counts are recorded at these sites.
How many tons of shells are being deployed this year?
This year it is estimated that 175,000 bushels of shell will be purchased and planted. The actual amount will not be known until the planting is completed. The shells come from a Virginia processor and he determines how much shell is available for Maryland’s DNR to buy.
Is the planting only done at this time of the year?
Shell planting is only conducted right before oysters start spawning. Seed planting can occur throughout the spring and summer, and sometimes into early fall. Seed oysters can be either natural seed (produced by natural reproduction) or hatchery seed (produced by hatchery methods). Hatchery seed is also called “spat-on-shell”.
These charts show the latest and historic information available on Maryland oyster landings and the number of oystering licenses – known as oyster surcharges – issued during the years when those records were kept.
Capt. Robert Newberry says
It is great to finally see somebody that really gets what we’re doing in the commercial industry to maintain sustainability of the natural resource that we are harvesting. When you look at the amount of money that we spend, and the return for the investments that we have put forth the results are amazing. In specific places where we have spent only hundreds of thousands, the return is greater for the investment we have put forward versus the tens of millions that the “oyster partnership folks” have spent with marginal if non existent returns on the taxpayers investment. Keep putting the good word out there, for the public really needs to see the truth about what really works.
Clif says
The truth, captain Newberry, is that a large percentage (up to 80% in some years) of the cost for buying and planting shells for public county bottom has been provided to DNR by the MD Department of Transportation- at the expense of all Maryland taxpayers.
Why there aren’t articles written to explain the reasoning for historically using State transportation funds to subsidize the wild commercial oyster fishery is the real question.