Of course, a whole basket of oysters floating out by the dock could be a tough temptation for some oyster lovers. The oysters are deposited on several developing reefs throughout the bay and the gardener gets a new batch of spat. Gardeners who start out with about 3,000 spat in a cage usually turn in around 2,000 1-inch oysters after a year, Reynolds said. Drying the oysters in the sun during warm months is also recommended to fend off algae. The floats must be hauled in periodically and cleaned of predators such as flatworms that feast on oyster spat. Much like planting greenery in dirt, tending young oysters can take some work. An oyster growing higher in the water column also avoids possible suffocation on the bay floor from sediment buildup. Suspending oysters in the water helps the oysters develop more quickly than they would on the bottom of the bay. The foundation has also distributed floats in Eastern Shore counties such as Queen Anne's and Talbot, as well as in Virginia. The submerged cages are now used by roughly 700 waterfront owners in the middle bay section, between the Patapsco and Patuxent rivers. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's gardening project is geared toward waterfront property owners who can throw the floats out from their docks, Reynolds said. The state has large-scale efforts under way to replace oyster reefs and stock them with spat. The legislation would be a minor boost for gardeners in the foundation's program who could probably claim the $75 they pay up front for the float, Reynolds said. "It is a win for the bay, for homeowners and for small businesses," said Delegate Anthony O'Donnell, lead sponsor of the legislation. Individuals will be able to claim a credit of up to $500 on their state income tax forms for the cost of buying an oyster float.
Legislation approved by the General Assembly will help recreational gardeners and commercial outfits that sell oyster floats and spat to waterfront owners. "They are essentially the aquarium filters." "Oysters are the most important animal in the bay," Goldsborough said. Oyster clusters also form reefs that prevent erosion and provide habitat for other animals. A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, removing particles and harmful nutrients from the water. That has meant the loss of a critical organism in the bay ecosystem. Today's population would take over a year to accomplish the same feat, Goldsborough said. Oysters were once so abundant in the Chesapeake Bay that the population in the late 1800s could have filtered the bay's entire water volume in just three days. Ravaged by overfishing, pollution and disease, the Chesapeake Bay's oyster population has plummeted to an estimated 1 percent of its population a little more than 100 years ago, according to Bill Goldsborough, senior scientist at the foundation which monitors the bay's health. "We've gotten more interest than we dreamed of," said Stephanie Reynolds, the self-described "oyster wrangler" who runs the project for the nonprofit group. People in Virginia and Maryland participate, and several schools in both states have set up oyster floats. Oyster growers taking part in the program deposited 882,900 of the mollusks into the bay last year, close to half of the 2.06 million oysters raised during the program's lifetime. There's a sense of satisfaction and hope." You see them so small, you watch them grow and you want them to thrive. "I call them my babies," Julie Kemp said. The oysters go overboard with the hope that they will help restore the bay's dwindling oyster population, but it's a bittersweet moment. The work has paid off _ oyster floats hang off many nearby docks.Īfter a year, the Kemps put their cages in their powerboat and motor out to a protected reef. The Kemps have gotten their neighbors involved, stuffing mailboxes with fliers about the project. The project has surpassed the foundation's expectations. Started in 1996, the project is meant to get residents involved in restoring oyster beds in the bay and preserving one of the bay's most critical and threatened life forms. Mary's County as part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's "oyster gardening" program. They check for disease and measure the oysters' growth.įor the past six years, the Kemps have raised a crop of several thousand oysters off their dock in St.
The Kemps tend the shellfish that cling to old oyster shells, pulling the floats out periodically to clean off sediment and grapelike sea squirts that can clog the cage. Each year, they shepherd thousands of young oysters, called spat, through their early stages of life in cages floating off their dock in an inlet near the mouth of the Patuxent River.
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