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Legislative Issue
Scientists advise against proposed expansion of power dredging for oysters As the 2013 General Assembly session approaches Sine Die, Maryland legislators appear poised to pass legislation that would expand power dredging for Chesapeake Bay oysters.
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Photo courtesy of MD DNR.
| Legislation that could enable power dredgers to seek permission from Maryland's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to operate three days per week - up from the existing two-day limit - passed unanimously in both the Senate and House of Delegates in March. The bills, HB 1505 and SB 1032, have crossed houses and been scheduled for hearings in an effort to pass the legislation before the General Assembly adjourns for the year on Monday night.
Power dredging advocates say it is both an effective harvesting method and a means of improving the health of Chesapeake Bay oyster stocks. Power dredging, they say, unearths oyster shells which have been buried in silt at the bottom of the Chesapeake, enabling them to serve as a growing surface for spat and ultimately supporting greater reproduction of Bay oysters. Power dredging, advocates say, can also remove diseased oysters and disease-causing pathogens from the Bay.
DNR, however, opposes expansion of power dredging on oysters bars. Power dredging, DNR says, can rapidly deplete wild oyster stocks, which are currently estimated at 0.3 percent of historic levels. It can also gradually damage oyster reefs.
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Legislative Issue
BaySavers supports oyster shell recycling
As part of Chesapeake BaySavers commitment to supporting good stewardship of the Chesapeake oyster, BaySavers President Evan Thalenberg last week published a guest column in the Annapolis Capital Gazette urging Marylanders to support oyster shell recycling. "Advocates for the revitalization of the Chesapeake Bay have come to one fundamental, if unglamorous, realization: The simple, gritty oyster shell is a prime instrument of environmental rebirth and economic growth," Thalenberg wrote.
A mounting shortage of oyster shell threatens to hamper oyster hatchery, aquaculture operations and oyster reef restoration.
Proposed legislation before Maryland's General Assembly would establish a $1 tax credit for every bushel of shell recycled.
That investment, Thalenberg argued, would generate hefty economic returns for Maryland as well as environmental benefits. "An analysis by the University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, concluded that a single dollar spent by the state to recycle a bushel of oyster shell could generate $1,318 of economic activity within the state... And these figures do not include the valuable ecologic benefits oysters provide by reducing nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the bay," Thalenberg wrote.
"Oyster shell recycling isn't some pricey, feel-good project," he concluded. "It's a solid investment in the health of the Chesapeake Bay that will deliver handsome returns for the state and for all Maryland citizens." For a full text of Evan Thalenberg's column in the Annapolis Capital Gazette, CLICK HERE.
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Life on the Chesapeake
Pioneering company showed oyster aquaculture could be profitable What started as a fascination with parasites and a desire to create a sustainable business spawned, literally, one of Maryland's pioneering oyster farms. The husband-and-wife team of Robert Maze and Laurie Landeau created Marinetics Inc./The Choptank Oyster Company in Cambridge in 1999 after earning their doctorate degrees studying parasites and veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Research had shown them that oysters raised in aquaculture operations had greater resistance to parasites. In what was described as the first "untraditional oyster farm on the Eastern Shore," Maze, Landeau and Marinetics General Manager Kevin McClaren created Maryland's first and only private oyster hatchery and an oyster farm on the Choptank River to grow out the spat.
"A lot of people didn't think we could make it work," McClaren said. "Prior to that, Chesapeake oysters were kind of looked down upon. They were all wild harvest which are not as good as farm-raised. Distributors' expectations of Chesapeake oysters was muddy bushel baskets of oysters that sold for next to nothing."
Marinetics spent "years running on the knife edge, financially," he said.
Initially, the company had more product than it could sell at farm-raised prices.
"A big sales week for us used to be 25 boxes. If we only sold 25 boxes of oysters a week now, we would shut the lights off," McClaren said, adding that the company currently sells about 180 boxes a week and more than one million oysters a year.
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