Them Boys is Owed Them Oysters

Many Hatchery-Produced Oysters Illegally Harvested

The fruit of a third of the work done by state agencies, organizations and fisheries to restore the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay is being stolen through illegal harvesting, according to biologists who research oyster beds in the bay.  Others say that number is even higher, closer to 80 percent of the managed reserves and sanctuaries. In all, fisheries Director Tom O'Connell said the state has invested about $50 million in oyster restoration since 1994. Yet the oyster population is still around 1 percent of historic numbers.

Oyster poaching has long been a tradition in the Chesapeake Bay.  From 1865 until 1959, watermen and state police had a series of violent clashes in the bay over the enforcement of oyster fishing restrictions.  These were termed the "oyster wars."  Although overt violence ended in 1995 when the Potomac River fish cops were disarmed after killing a waterman poaching oysters, the problems with oyster poaching have never ceased.

Watermen believe that while theft occurs, the number can't be as high as Meritt claims. "I could see a third of it being stolen, but 80 percent seems too high," said Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association.

It costs about $1.5 million to produce spat at the Horn Point facility each year. The state pays for about $500,000 through the Department of Natural Resources and another $500,000 comes from the University of Maryland. About $400,000 worth of operations are federally funded, with smaller donations from preservation groups.

They're not just stealing from a hypothetical bay, they're stealing from us.  We pay to put those oysters out there in hopes of building the population up.  It's insane that we continue to allow commercial fishing on oysters when the population is such a small fraction of bay's demonstrated carrying capacity for them.  If they weren't allowed to be out there fishing for them legally, it would be much harder to hide the poaching.

The title of this post comes from a remark overheard from watermen's representative at a MD DNR fisheries meeting in Annapolis.