The Good News is That There Are Still Some Left

Maryland oyster season could be extended

In the Chesapeake Bay sheets of ice have cracked and thawed, allowing many watermen to return to work.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering extending the oyster season until April 14 baywide to help mitigate the damage of lost fishing days. Watermen approached the department asking for an extension, according to Shellfish Program Director Mike Maylor.

"It's been a brutal winter, especially February," waterman Johnny Shockley of Hooper's Island said. "It really does create a hardship."

Shockley said he was unable to harvest oysters from the wild for about 10 days.
"When you miss those days you don't get those days back," he said.

A season extension of 10 days would be fair to watermen and to resource management, Shockley said.

The department is currently considering extending the oyster season baywide until April 14, providing an extra 10 working days. They are accepting public comment on the proposal until March 11, via email at fisheriespubliccomment.dnr@maryland.gov.

"There will be some kind of decision made relatively soon," he said.

Harvesting in Wicomico and Worcester is only a small slice for Maryland, according to Maylor, but the freeze could have impacted watermen living in those counties who commute to the bay.

Harvesting is typically low this time of year, Maylor added, with most harvesting occurring before the start of the New Year.

That would be Mike Naylor (or Patapsco Mike to some of us in the old days). Layers of fact checkers.

If I were DNR I'd leap on any excuse to reduce the commercial fishing on oysters. Can't fish for ten days because it's covered with ice, too bad? Do builders and contractors get those days back, too?

I repeat my plan for banning commercial fishing on wild oysters in Chesapeake Bay for 5 or 10 years, to find out if they can recover without intervention.


Mike Naylor Interview from Bay on the Brink on Vimeo.