In a packed room of more than a hundred at the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Company, local watermen, families and Oyster Advisory Commission members waited anxiously through an hour of presentations in order to hear the Department of Natural Resources proposed changes for the 2023-24 season.
They were rewarded with the announcement there are no proposed changes, with the next revision and check-up scheduled for January 2024.
Maryland DNR Deputy Director of Shellfish Division Jodi Baxter led the discussion after a roll call of commission members (or their proxies). Baxter launched a presentation highlighting the 2022-2023 season statistics which saw a record harvest — the largest since the mid-80s, seeing 623,000 bushels of oysters brought to market (not including those taken by recreational fishing, with a limit of 100 per person per day).
The season running from Oct. 1 to March 1 saw not only an uptick in harvest numbers, but also in the number of oyster surcharges. An oyster surcharge must be purchased to commercially harvest oysters.
Funds from surcharges are used to replenish public oyster bars by planting seed and substrate. Baxter noted, some individuals may purchase an oyster surcharge but choose not to harvest in a given season.
This harvest resulted in $24 million in buy tickets at local seafood houses, buyers and restaurants, at a rate of $43 per bushel. It was estimated by the DNR that the economic impact of this pricing is likely two to three times this cost at the plate.
Dr. Trey Mace, DNR Fisheries stock assessment scientist, continued the discussion with the statistics concerning 2023 stock assessment — a scientific study that uses available data to estimate the abundance of wild oysters in the Maryland portion of the bay, the fraction of oysters that die each year from natural causes including disease, and the fraction of oysters that are harvested each year by fishing.
It was during Mace’s portion of the briefing where the most questions were posed. Most of these questions were based around how the data was compiled, what areas of the bay bottom were used for the data (sanctuary vs. non-sanctuary) and some of the terminology used in the presentation.
Based on the science behind the data, the slides showed trends, areas where fishing and harvest were higher, target harvest rates, upper limits as well as other data based metrics. None of these appeared to answer the central question on a lot of people’s minds, “What will my fishing business look like in the coming years and can my family make a living from it?”
Gee, it's nice that oysters are finally back up to the numbers they were at when I arrived in Maryland in 1985, which were still far below the numbers before the watermen started mining them in the late 1800s and early 1900s. If we took a few less maybe we could keep them there.
The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Natalya Neidhart up and awaiting your clicks at The Other McCain.
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