Maryland’s extensive network of oyster sanctuaries would shrink by 11 percent under a draft plan drawn up by state natural resources officials, which would open several protected areas to periodic harvest by watermen while setting aside other areas.
The draft, presented Monday night to the state’s Oyster Advisory Commission, would open nearly 1,000 acres of areas known to be productive oyster bottom to harvesting in the state’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. It drew cautious praise from watermen and other seafood industry supporters, but questions from scientists and criticism from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Department of Natural Resources officials called the proposal a “fair and balanced” attempt to bridge deep division between watermen seeking to reclaim access to oyster reefs they used to harvest and environmentalists insisting the sanctuaries should remain unchanged, if not expanded.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Bay Journal
