Most gardeners are just starting to see the results of what they planted in the soil earlier this spring. But for waterfront-based oyster gardeners, it's time to harvest the young bivalves they've been raising from their docks and "plant" them in rivers of the Chesapeake Bay
Volunteers who've been tending to cages or bags of bivalves in the water by their docks or piers are now pulling them up for relocation to sanctuaries in the wild. There, it is hoped they'll play at least a bit part in helping to repopulate the bay with oysters, for which it was once famous. Overharvested in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the bay's remaining oysters were ravaged by diseases in the 1980s, and the population today is estimated to be just 2 percent of historic levels.
On Saturday (June 5), members of the Severn River Association plan to plant nearly three-quarters of a million oysters on a new reef across from the Naval Academy in Annapolis. The shellfish have been reared from spat since last August in 1,100 cages cared for by more than 250 volunteers. Oysters once thrived on Traces Hollow reef - and may do so again, if this venture succeeds.
Starting on Sunday, members of the Patuxent River chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association of Maryland will deposit 300 bushels of oyster shells in Hellen Creek to prepare the bottom for new bivalves. In subsequent weeks, volunteers plan to deposit 500,000 oysters in protected areas of the river that have been raised from spat by some 250 waterfront property owners. Aiding the recreational anglers in this enterprise has been Calvin Davies, a Patuxent High School sophomore who tended a batch of oysters as his Eagle Scout service project.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which has been promoting oyster gardening for years, held oyster "drop-offs" in Annapolis, St. Michaels and Solomons this week where bivalves could be collected for relocation to watery sanctuaries.
These oysters are being raised for the ecological benefits, mind you, not to eat. Mature oysters can filter up to 60 gallons of water a day, the Severn River group points out, and the reefs they build with their shells also provide habitat for other fish and aquatic creatures.
For those who'd like to try their hand at oyster gardening, the bay foundation will hold workshops in early fall. Check for a schedule sometime in August.
The state, meanwhile, has a "Marylanders Grow Oysters" program modeled on the bay foundation concept, which recruits volunteers to raise the bivalves. Thousands of cages of oysters have been reared in a dozen rivers and creeks under the two-year-old effort, and Gov. Martin O'Malley announced this week the effort would be expanded into seven new tributaries. For more on that, go here.