More than 150 watermen took a day off from the water Tuesday to protest a proposed oyster restoration plan and support a bill they say will help them hang on to their livelihood.
The bill would protect the watermen's right to use certain equipment and techniques - power dredging and patent tongs - to harvest oysters. The areas where oystermen can use that equipment is limited, and the bill would prevent the state from further restrictions.
"We see this as a pre-emptive bill," said Sen. Richard F. Colburn, a Republican from Caroline County, who introduced the bill Tuesday in the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.
Watermen say their ability to harvest oysters is threatened by Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed Oyster Restoration and Aquaculture Development Plan.
The 10-point plan includes increasing oyster sanctuaries from 9 percent of the current habitat to about 25 percent, leaving less area for struggling oystermen to harvest. Watermen worry the state's next step will be to ban power dredging and patent tonging all together.
The oyster restoration plan does not specifically address the harvesting methods. But Department of Natural Resources officials say Colburn's bill would inhibit the department's ability to establish oyster sanctuaries in the lower part of the Chesapeake Bay, where most of the dredging happens.
Watermen say power dredging can do more to restore oyster populations than sanctuaries can do.
Bucky Chance, a waterman from Bozman, pointed to the Tangier Sound as an example. Ten years ago, he said, an oyster was hard to come by in those waters. Now, he said, many oystermen are catching their limit there every day, and seeing plenty of young oysters as well.
"Every place we have used [this equipment], they're coming back. Every place we're not, they're barren," Chance told the Senate committee.
But Tom O'Connell, director of the Department of Natural Resources fisheries service, said dredging can be destructive in some parts of the bay.
"We know for certain" that power dredging is not sustainable over time in certain areas, O'Connell said.
Capital News Service reporter Adam Kerlin contributed to this article.