Growing oysters - one pier at a time
It's gardening time on the Chesapeake Bay - oyster gardening, that is.
With the bay's oysters depleted by disease and habitat loss, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation separately are trying to enlist waterfront residents in bringing the pollution-filtering bivalves back. Oysters are one of the keys to the bay's restoration, since each large one can filter up to two gallons of water an hour.
After an initial tryout getting residents along the Tred Avon River to raise oysters, the state is expanding its "Marylanders Grow Oysters" campaign to 11 new rivers around the bay. Up to 5,000 cages with baby oyster "spat" bred in a state hatchery are to be distributed to pier owners willing to tend the shellfish over the next 10 to 12 months, so that they can be "planted" on the bay bottom next summer. For details on which rivers are being targeted and how to participate, go here.
The Annapolis-based bay foundation, meanwhile, is offering oyster gardening workshops in September and October for residents with water access. Volunteers will be given several thousand "seed" oysters for cultivation, and taught how to build four wire-mesh cages in which to grow them. Once the oysters grow to one or two inches across, they're returned to the foundation, so its staff can plant them with volunteers' help in sanctuary waters off limits to commercial harvest. CBF has a brief video about its program that you can see here. For details on the workshops and to sign up - there's a $75 fee - go here.
Growing oysters doesn't require special talent, just some dedication - mostly rinsing the cages every couple weeks to make sure they don't get fouled with marine organisms that keep water from flowing freely past the oysters inside. You can get an idea what's involved in the photo above, of a cage hung off a pier a couple years back at the Captain Sam Avery House Museum in Annapolis.
Sadly, there probably aren't enough piers out there to put a big dent in the bay's oyster problems. But it's a great way to enlist waterfront residents in the effort to restore the Chesapeake, which needs all the help it can get.
(2007 Baltimore Sun Staff Photo by Amy Davis)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, Going Green, News, Volunteer
Comments
This is such a great idea. I wish I had a pier to put a few cages on. It's the most sensible and natural way to filter the water in the Bay and promote sea grass growth, etc. It would be a great idea to put oysters in the Inner Harbor to filter the water there and also to raise awareness and educate about how oysters can help. It would seem that the Aquarium would be a good backdrop for such an ecologically-minded project. Not to mention having cleaner water in the area, which is a plus for the environment and for the general upkeep of the bay. Sadly, obscure piers on private land in rural areas won't ever accomplish a raised level of awareness in the general public.
Posted by: Brent | August 31, 2009 9:54 AM