TILGHMAN – After nine months growing from tiny spat to healthy teenagers in the tender care of some 80 volunteer oyster growers in the vicinity of Tilghman Island, it was time for this year’s oysters to “go to bed.” At
the first of June, volunteers from the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center retrieved some 400 cages placed beneath piers last October.
The cages were made by prisoners, the spat were provided to PWEC by the Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge, and PWEC volunteers made it all happen, under the direction of TIGO coordinator Carol McCollough. “TIGO stands for “Tilghman Islanders Grow Oysters,” she explained. “We’re part of the Marylanders Grow Oysters program.”
Begun just two years ago, the TIGO program nearly doubled for the 2012-13 season. The volunteer growers needed to look after their baby oysters to make sure they have enough water flow to stay healthy. This means pulling up and sloshing the cages every 10 days or so.
Over the winter, McCollough, aided by Chesapeake Conservation Corps intern Matt Felperin, monitored a specific batch of oysters at 5 different locations—counting, monitoring, and looking for disease. The TIGO program has three main goals, among them getting citizens directly and personally involved with living oysters and helping to add healthy oysters to the Harris Creek oyster sanctuary. But the mission of Phillips Wharf has a science component, too. “We want to learn where baby oysters do well and where they don’t,” explained McCollough, “so we can get the best yield for the effort. And we want to track them after they go into the sanctuary.”
TIGO Planting Day is a big event, and it has to be carefully orchestrated so the oysters spend the minimum time out of the water. At 8 a.m., 10 pickups and drivers reported to PWEC on Knapp’s Narrows, where they got their maps, instructions and volunteer assistants. This year the collection team included 11 young people from the Youth and Member Program of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, accompanied by seven adults. Mike Mesko brought some of the boys from BSA Troop 741, PWEC interns Kayla Fairfield, Patricia Alves Pereira, and Maria Abadie joined to estimate oyster counts, and many other volunteers from the Bay Hundred community turned out to help.
By early afternoon, the oysters were all collected, transferred to fish baskets and loaded aboard Capt. Jeff Harrison’s Amity Leah, Capt. Jerry Janda’s Lucky Lady II and Capt. Stan Brown’s Snow Goose. Included with the PWEC cages were 134 cages from Egelseder Retirement Systems and 20 cages managed by Robin Harrison from Balls Creek. The convoy soon reached the designated drop-off point in Harris Creek and, with cheers and best wishes, the oysters went overboard. A grand total of 227,000 additional yearling oysters are now living in Harris Creek.
Meanwhile, back at PWEC, hundreds of cages were being power-washed for use next fall. Anyone with a pier in the Tilghman-Harris Creek area who would like to participate in the 2013-14 TIGO program should send an email to[email protected].
Steve Bailey, for PWEC
..
Robin Harrison says
Just to set the record straight…the oyster cages from Ball Creek were managed by the Talbot County Waterman’s Association. And, under the direction of their treasurer, Lisa Gowe, Robin Harrison collected the oyster cages from the kind hearted oyster growers of Neavitt.
Thanks so much!
James Dissette says
Thank you for this additional information!