Oyster columns
Is there something in the water?
Two outdoor columnists are writing about the scarcity of oysters and what to do about it.
Here's Angus Phillips in The Post:
By the mid-1900s, as the resource grew scarcer and many bars were fished out, the catch fell to a more manageable 1 to 2 million bushels a year. Then disease, in the form of two natural waterborne pathogens, MSX and dermo, wreaked more havoc in the 1980s and the harvest dwindled precipitously. These days, Maryland watermen are lucky to catch 100,000 bushels a year; in 2004, the worst year on record, they landed 24,000 bushels.
If that weren't depressing enough, the fishery today is propped up by lavish government programs that artificially boost the catch as oyster larvae are hatched out and grown in sanctuaries, then transplanted to public oyster bars to be harvested as they grow near market size.
And here is our own Candy Thomson...
How can we be sure the state's oyster reserves are nothing but a make-work project for watermen? Let DNR tell you in its own words on its Web site: "A managed oyster reserve is a site where oyster spat are planted and grown specifically for the purpose of maximizing the economic value of the oysters for watermen. ... Reserve openings are focused during times of peak demand, such as around holidays, to further enhance their market value."
Gee, DNR, what are you giving the rest of us for Christmas?
Perhaps a better solution is coming. A group established by the legislature, the Oyster Advisory Commission, is preparing a report for lawmakers. Its next meeting is Dec. 20.
But even if the commission comes up with a bold plan of action, chances are the Legislature will water it down like a drink in a cheap bar and charge us extra.
Comments
As a college student in the mid 70"\'s I remember the SAVE THE BAY talk. Over the years there have been many politicians to champion the bay as part of their agenda. My claim is simple, people have use the bay as a cash cow. Funding for study after study with very little action. I fish at a small pond that is smack in the middle of a business campus. It is surrounded by parking lots and hardscape that all drain into it. It has more fish and birds than I have seen in traveling the state of Md fishing for the last 40 yrs. The simple fact is the pond has aerators installed to keep the oxygen levels up to support the abundence of fish. Why can't some of the money used to "STUDY" the bay actually be put to use areating the bay. Windmills, solar power, as well as water flow itself can all economically be used to power underwater aerators to bring up oxygen levels in the bay. Before you say it won't work, show me the emperical data where it has been tried and failed. Not just some study that milks additional funds to support career biologists or gov. worker hoping to make it a life long career. This little pond has pollution as well as runoff of nutrients from the Nitrogen applied to the lawn that surrounds it. Aerators. Simple aeators are far more effective and ecomomical that seeded oyster farms hoping to some how return to the days of Columbus. Jeff Thomas Eldersburg Md.
Posted by: Jeff Thomas | December 10, 2007 3:07 PM