The Phillips Wharf Environmental Center’s Board of Directors has recently accepted the resignation of Kelley Phillips Cox, with Cox citing medical reasons for the move. The Board has named Cox Executive Director Emerita to honor her role as the nonprofit’s founder and first director.

Cox continues to volunteer for the nonprofit that carries her family name, helping with grant writing and administration, among other operational support.

“I’m very much still involved,” said Cox. “Right now, I need to make my health my priority, especially during the COVID pandemic. All the work Phillips Wharf does is still at my heart, and I am continuing to work with our community partners and assist with grants—all which will help to expand their aquaculture and education programs.”

“We are extremely grateful for Kelley’s leadership and service to the nonprofit that will always carry her family’s name,” said Phillips Wharf Board President Matt Albers. “Because of Kelley, we can continue to grow in the services provided as we educate more children and adults about Chesapeake Bay aquaculture and more.”

Albers says the Board is now overseeing PWEC’s limited operations due to the COVID pandemic, and plans to begin a new executive director search by spring 2021.

Cox is a Tilghman Island native who founded Phillips Wharf Environmental Center in 2005 on property that once served as a seafood packinghouse as part of Cox’s family lineage. Cox’s family includes multi-generations of Chesapeake Bay watermen, with Cox receiving her marine biology degree from Salisbury University in pursuit of her passion for science. Her research and expertise are focused on estuarine aquaculture and the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem, with experience as a project WET certified instructor.

Cox continues to be actively involved with numerous regional organizations, including the Maryland Association of Outdoor and Environmental Educators, Mid-Atlantic Marine Educators Association, National Marine Educators Association, National Science Teachers Association, and the Maryland Oyster Advisory Commission. She is the recipient of MAEOE’s 2014 Robert Finton Maryland Environmental Educator of the Year Award and its 2018 Heritage Heroes Award. Talbot County’s Office of Economic Development and Tourism recognized Cox with its2019 Community Impact Award.

Phillips Wharf’s mission is to encourage, educate, and engage Chesapeake Bay stewards of all ages through interactive experiences highlighting the Bay’s ecosystem and its inhabitants, with more at phillipswharf.org.

Phillips Wharf Environmental Center on Tilghman Island, Md. is offering a course on growing oysters from your own dock on Sat., Mar. 21 from 10 to 3 p.m., with oyster farmer Lawrence Rudner of St. Michaels, Md. leading the course. The event includes a shuck-your-own lunch of a dozen oysters, with participation limited, and advance registration needed.

“You can grow healthy, delicious oysters for your own use off your dock with minimal effort, all while helping to clean the Chesapeake Bay,” said PWEC Executive Director Kelley Cox. “The state of Maryland is offering a tax credit of up to $500 per person for the purchase of new floating oyster cages. This course will help folks to use that credit, while teaching the practical aspects of oyster gardening.”

The oyster gardening workshop will cover information on oyster history, biology, and regulations; gardening and equipment options and sources; seed types; processing and harvesting techniques; ways to safely shuck an oyster; and more.

Lawrence Rudner has been growing oysters dockside for more than 10 years, and has recently applied for two aquaculture leases to raise and commercially sell oysters under the Oyster Girl Oysters brand.

The cost of the workshop is $99 and includes lunch. To reserve, please send a check made out to ‘PWEC,’ along with your phone number, email address, and postal address to: PWEC Oyster Gardening Class, 6129 Tilghman Island Rd, Tilghman, MD 21671.

Phillips Wharf Environmental Center’s mission is to encourage, educate, and engage Chesapeake Bay stewards of all ages through interactive experiences highlighting the Bay’s ecosystem and its inhabitants.

For more information, visit phillipswharf.org.

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Blue crabs and the Bay will be the topic for the Sat., Feb. 22 Sip & Socialize speaker event at Phillips Wharf Environmental Center on Tilghman Island. Phillips Wharf’s newest staff member and marine estuarine scientist Dr. Kristen Lycett will lead the discussion on the reasons for the blue crab’s population fluctuations over the years, along with the crab’s life cycle and the impact of disease.

The event starts at 5 p.m. in Phillips Wharf classroom, beginning with wine, refreshments, and light snacks served before the presentation. Following the speaker presentation will be time for discussion.

“The blue crab, Callinectessapidus, is an important crustacean species along the Atlantic coasts of North and South America. In the Chesapeake, it serves as prey for a variety of other species and serves as an important fishery,” said Lycett. “In fact, the U.S. blue crab fishery brought in $197 million in 2017, $48 million of which came from the state of Maryland. However, blue crab populations along the eastern coast of the United States have seen major fluctuations and even declines in recent years.”

Lycett received her Ph.D. from the Marine Estuarine Environmental Science program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where she studied the parasite Hematodiniumperezi, which infects blue crabs and other crustaceans.

Bring your curiosity and questions to the Sip & Socialize, as Dr. Lycett has a wealth of knowledge to share.Phillips Wharf Environmental Center’s Sip & Socialize Winter Speaker Series is free, with donations gratefully accepted.

Phillips Wharf Environmental Center’s Sip & Socialize Winter Speaker Series features volunteers, experts, and Chesapeake Bay industry professionals on topics pertinent to the Chesapeake Bay, wildlife and environmental changes, with more in the series posted at phillipswharf.org.

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Phillips Wharf Environmental Center on Tilghman Island, Md. is inviting the public to its Sat., Feb. 8 Sip & Socialize Speaker Series for a talk on Mallows Bay, Beyond the Ghost Fleet.

Each Sip & Socialize speaker event begins at 5 p.m. in Phillips Wharf classroom, with wine, refreshments, and light snacks served. Following the speaker presentation will be time for discussion.

Mallows Bay—known as a ship graveyard—is located along the Potomac River in Charles County, Md. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently designated an 18-square mile stretch of the area as the Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary.

Mallows Bay is most renowned for its “Ghost Fleet,” the partially submerged remains of more than 100 wooden steamships that were built in response to threats from World War I-era German U-boats that were sinking ships in the Atlantic.

Susan B. M. Langley, PhD will present the history of the largest fleet of wooden shipwrecks in the world. Langley will also speak on Mallow Bay’s most prominent vessels and its recent designation as a National Marine Sanctuary. The history of Maryland’s other maritime heritage resources, and the integral role the fleet now plays in the environment will also be explored.

Dr. Langley has been the Maryland State Underwater Archaeologist for more than 25 years directing the Maryland Maritime Archaeology Program within the Department of Planning’s Maryland Historical Trust. She is an adjunct professor at several colleges and universities, where she teaches underwater archaeology and the anthropology of piracy.

Phillips Wharf Environmental Center’s Sip & Socialize Winter Speaker Series is free, with donations gratefully accepted.

Phillips Wharf Environmental Center’s Sip & Socialize Winter Speaker Series features volunteers, experts, and Chesapeake Bay industry professionals on topics pertinent to the Chesapeake Bay, wildlife and environmental changes, with more in the series posted at phillipswharf.org.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Talbot Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here