![oyster dredge oyster dredge](https://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/oyster-dredging-david-parkerscience-photo-library.jpg)
“That’s a lot of shell,” Talbot County waterman Jeff Harrison said.
![oyster dredge oyster dredge](https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8391/8495404621_df31b8b57a_b.jpg)
State officials hope that once the newly issued five-year permit runs its course, they can renew it to take a total of 30 million bushels, or about 30 percent of the reef.ĭNR officials - and some watermen - say the shell cache in Man O’ War is just the ticket to rebuild the Bay’s lost oyster habitat and sustain the traditional wild harvest. With the commercial harvest today far smaller than it was decades ago, fresh oyster shells for reef replenishment are in short supply, and costly.įor that reason, the DNR wants the shoal’s shells to replenish oyster reefs in waters open to commercial harvest, restore other reefs in sanctuary areas and help private oyster growers. But with Maryland and Virginia both embarking on large-scale efforts to restore oyster reefs in a total of 10 Chesapeake Bay tributaries, there’s a much greater need for shell substrate than in the past. In a natural setting, baby oysters, known as spat, attach to and grow on other oyster shells. Though productive long ago, it has relatively few live oysters now, despite repeated efforts to reseed it. Man O’ War Shoal harbors up to 100 million bushels of shells in its 446-acre footprint, according to a 1988 survey. They haven’t even informed those in favor of dredging the shoals about the Corps’ decision. The Corps’ conditional approval comes after nearly three years of effort by the DNR to address questions and concerns raised about the project, which is opposed by environmentalists, recreational anglers and even some watermen.īut now, having won the federal go-ahead, state officials appear in no hurry to act on it. Army Corps of Engineers issued a provisional permit on May 17 to the state Department of Natural Resources to take up to 5 million bushels of shells from Man O’ War Shoal just outside the mouth of the Patapsco River and use the shell to replenish or rebuild oyster reefs at other Bay locations. By Timothy Wheeler, Bay Journal News ServiceĪfter years of scrutiny, federal regulators have given a qualified green light to a controversial Maryland plan to dredge old oyster shells from an ancient reef near Baltimore - a project intended to enhance oyster habitat elsewhere in the Chesapeake Bay, but also to help the sagging commercial fishery.