Today's the beginning of oyster season in Maryland, but not just yet for the handfull of pioneers who've been first to jump on the state's new bandwagon promoting private oyster farming over the traditional wild fishery.
So far, 16 individuals or companies have applied to lease about 3,311 acres of bottom in the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers so they can raise oysters there, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. They're the first to try their hand since Maryland expanded the area available for leasing, while setting aside other large areas as sanctuaries where no harvest would be permitted – including some areas that until this year had been actively harvested by watermen.
Dorchester County seafood dealer Jay Robinson is one of those. He's teamed up with Berlin accountant Ryan Bergey to start an oyster aquaculture operation in which they hope to employ watermen working private oyster beds. They've already begun to build the "setting" facility where they'll have baby oysters, or spat, settle on oyster shells before putting them in open water.
Robinson said they're anxious to start preparing the bottom where they hope to begin planting oysters next spring. But they're in a holding pattern for now, because the state has yet to act on their application to lease 1,000 acres. Robnson said he was told it may be up to 60 days before he gets word.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Baltimore Sun.