Watermen Want More Time to Get That Last Oyster

 Sauron's Eye, Frozen Chesapeake Bay leaves Maryland watermen struggling during peak oyster season

Many Maryland watermen have been stuck on land for weeks because parts of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries remain frozen over, leaving some oystermen out of work during peak season. Life-long waterman John Clopine said conditions have not been this bad in decades. "Us watermen can't get out and go to work and we've got bills to pay," Clopine said. "You can't pay bills"

Parts of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed are still iced over, keeping watermen like Clopine on land during commercial oyster season, which runs from October through the end of March. "The ice would sink the boat basically," Clopine said.

My marina is still totally iced in. 

Clopine and fellow Eastern Shore waterman Tyrone Meredith said they have not been able to work in weeks, missing out on critical income. "You can't make money; you can't pay bills. We're not getting any oysters to the market," Meredith said.

Last week, Maryland congressman Andy Harris asked the federal government to step in. Rep. Harris sent a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requesting an economic fishery disaster declaration, which could open the door to emergency relief for Maryland oystermen under federal law. Harris said severe weather, reduced market access and competition left many crews able to fish only one or two days all season. NOAA has not yet announced whether it will approve that disaster request.

From UnDark, An Effort to Ease Water Pollution With Oysters Fizzled. Why?

Years ago, the state of Maryland adopted a plan to capitalize on those environmental benefits. Under the Water Quality Trading Program, established in 2018, farms, sewage and wastewater treatment plants, and stormwater treatment facilities could earn credits by implementing certain management practices that reduced nitrogen, phosphorous, or sediment loads within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. They could then sell those credits on a state-run market to companies or municipalities looking to offset their own nutrient emissions to meet permit requirements or sustainability goals. For the oyster fisheries that later began participating in the program, this meant allowing them to claim and sell credits for the nitrogen and phosphorous they extracted from the watershed with each harvest.

The idea was to create opportunities for farmers like McClarren “through market-based approaches” to take advantage of their environmental assets, in order to “unleash the full strength of markets,” said Greg Allen, a former environmental scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office.

But McClarren has yet to earn or sell a single nutrient credit on the state market. And he is not alone.

According to a registry maintained by Maryland’s Department of the Environment, there have been just three trades involving oyster aquaculture over the program’s lifetime, and none since June 2020. Oyster farmers have been slow to participate, and would-be buyers of nutrient credits even slower. The vast majority of nitrogen and phosphorous credits generated through oyster farming have languished on the market unpurchased.
. . .
Allen attributed the disappointing performance to a shortfall of demand to buy credits. Indeed, roughly 90 percent of the nutrient reduction credits certified through the program have languished on the market without a buyer, according to the state registry.

Ya gotta have someone to buy the product.