Announced last year by Gov. Martin O'Malley, the oyster project sets aside tens of thousands of acres of bay-bottom for aquaculture leasing, called enterprise zones, and expands sanctuaries from nine percent to about 25 percent of the remaining viable bay bottom to allow oysters to grow to full reproductive size.

The state has committed millions of dollars to help watermen transition to aquaculture and to pay for high-tech law enforcement surveillance tools to monitor sanctuaries and oyster beds. The state oyster hatchery at Horn Point in Cambridge received an $11 million upgrade to increase annual production to 2 billion baby oysters.

Oysters are at 1 percent of their historic population, and previous attempts to revive them have been inefficient and ineffective.

The process of farming oysters isn't new. More than 90 percent of oysters worldwide come from aquaculture. Economists believe that by encouraging aquaculture, Maryland could jump start a bay industry worth $40 million annually.

But watermen have complained about the plan, saying the state is setting aside the most productive areas of the bay for a risky experiment and demanded that some of the sanctuaries be scaled back or relocated.

In response to criticism, DNR Secretary John Griffin sent letters to the 12 county oyster commissions around the bay, asking for any final input that could be added to the plan by emergency regulations to meet the Oct. 1 opening of the oyster harvesting season. Only Baltimore County did not respond.

O'Connell says the agency might tweak the plan by Sept. 14, based on the additional input, but doesn't see any major changes on the horizon.

"It's going to be an intense week, 10 days, but I think it will be worth it," O'Connell said.

All applications are being date and time stamped and will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis.