Maryland Looking At Virginia's Oyster Management Method

As Maryland watermen seek to shake up their state’s management of the Chesapeake Bay oyster fishery, they’re looking south, where landings in Virginia’s public fishery last year were six times what they were a decade ago.

Maryland’s wild harvest has actually surpassed Virginia’s in the last four years, as it enjoyed a similar boom. With a strong tradition of private oyster farming, Virginia gets more bivalves from leased bottom areas than from its public fishery.

But it’s the way that the Old Dominion manages its public fishery, rather than the overall result, that has drawn the interest of its northern neighbors.

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