Maryland Proposes to Ease Restrictions on Moving Seed Oysters

Zones would streamline certification of seed oysters being moved across state lines.

Currently, oyster growers in Maryland need a shellfish transport permit to import seed or oyster larvae across state lines — even if that line is just a few miles away in Virginia. Maryland law requires the hatcheries supplying the seed to test each batch to make sure they’re free of the pathogens that cause MSX and Dermo, the two oyster diseases that have devastated populations in the last 50 years. The testing can take several weeks, and the “health certificate” is good for 30 days. That means if oyster growers need more seeds a couple of months later, they will have to endure the process again.
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In May, the Aquaculture Coordinating Council threw its support behind a proposal from Ryan Carnegie, a research associate professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who specializes in shellfish pathology. Carnegie is proposing to assemble a group of leading pathologists to create a new system for certifying the shellfish that would both minimize disease and lessen regulatory burdens on growers. The new system could work several different ways, Carnegie said, but one idea is to divide the Chesapeake into zones, test oysters raised there, and allow any other grower in the zone to import that seed without a permit.

The diseases are a big problem for Maryland oysters, but that cat is pretty far out of the bag.  In a bad summer, (warm, high salinity usually) the diseases Dermo and MSX attack oyster bars all over the state, sparing only the ones in the freshest possible water that oysters can tolerate.  Still, it's a good idea not to move them around unnecessarily while doing aquaculture or "oyster restoration", which as we have seen is largely a euphemism for "lining our pockets with government fund while accomplishing almost nothing."