![]() ![]() The recycled shell is also used to bolster state and federally sponsored oyster restoration in Chesapeake Bay tributaries on the Eastern Shore of Maryland - the largest oyster restoration project in the country. After a year, the homeowners return the oysters and the bivalves are planted in oyster sanctuaries to improve water quality, among other benefits. The effort protects baby oysters in their most vulnerable stages. Some of the shells are used for the Marylanders Grow Oysters program, which equips willing waterfront households with cages of oysters to hang from their docks. He added: “It comes down to believing in the mission.” “Sure I’m just dumping the shells,” he said, “but each one will become a home for 10 baby oysters.” While Witzke picks up, transports and unloads shell, he keeps the bigger picture in mind. ![]() “Loving to fish and crab and even eat some of the seafood that we get from it has opened my eyes to the plight of the bay and how, consequently, there are efforts out there to bring it back.” “We’ve also had moments where we can’t necessarily go swimming in some of those tributaries because of bacteria and other things,” he said. He’s also seen the Chesapeake’s condition change. ![]() “I’ve always gotten to see how life on the bay is.” Witzke grew up near Salisbury, Maryland, “always going to tributaries of the bay, specifically the Nanticoke and living near the Wicomico,” he said. Witzke works for the Shell Recycling Alliance, an Oyster Recovery Partnership program that collects discarded shell from restaurants and seafood distributors in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and parts of Virginia. “Just me individually,” Witzke said, “I pick up 100-150 restaurants” per week. Time to pick up smelly barrels of shells from roughly 30 restaurants in Annapolis. The bearded man hopped into a Ford F-550, fired up the truck - covered with oyster-camouflage - and shifted it into gear. We believe that we should do what we can since we live here.At 7:30 a.m., outside of the Oyster Recovery Partnership office and by the trunk of his 2008 Toyota Corolla, Wayne Witzke traded his slides for a pair of brown rubber boots. She said, "Our concern for the bay is what drives us. If you want to eat oysters, you should grow them through aquaculture, so you don't deplete the populations." "We have 350 members from Maryland all the way to North Carolina," she said. Jacqueline Partin, once again TOGA president, is excited about the possibilities. 20 at the Piankatank Community League Building in Harcum and Sept. TOGA will provide float workshops for potential oyster gardeners Aug. The tiny larvae can find hiding places down inside reef structures and have a better chance to survive." "We believe that the problems encountered by placing adult oysters on reefs subject to many predators may be avoided by releasing oyster spawn into the water. "Each adult oyster filters as much as 50, 60 gallons of water a day, and the oysters we grow provide millions of oyster larvae that have the potential for helping to repopulate the bay," she said. TOGA members think that this difference will prove oyster gardening is an excellent means of restoring the bay's oyster population. "We hope that by this means, we can show a difference in spat set between these two creeks," she said. Volunteers will clean and maintain the oysters and shell bags on these creeks until October, when the shell bags will be removed and the spat, or baby oysters, will be counted on the shells. "We hope that larvae will help populate the Piankatank oyster reefs, as well as other hard structures, such as the shells in the shell bags, in the creeks and rivers of the bay," Jacqueline Partin said. The Queens Creek oysters should have spawned in July. In late June, they placed 20 shell bags on Queens Creek and another 20 on Cobbs Creek. Thanks to a sizable grant from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, the group provided more than 20,000 year-old oysters and 40 floats to homeowners on Queens Creek in May. TOGA is conducting a study on Queens and Cobbs creeks off the Piankatank River. When the seed oysters outgrow their original grow bags, the gardeners must build lids over the baskets to deter hungry otters, raccoons and other predators. Gardeners must keep the baskets free from algae and other small creatures. PVC-pipe frames or two-liter bottles provide the buoyancy for the baskets. The baskets are plastic or metal mesh with openings sized to keep the oysters in but allow food and water to flow freely. ![]() The Partins estimate that interested oyster gardeners can begin the process for about $100.įloats hold the oysters a few inches below the water's surface. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |