In the five years since Maryland’s law changed to allow oyster aquaculture throughout the state, dozens of entrepreneurs have taken the plunge. They have built an industry that’s raising millions of oysters, creating jobs in waterside communities and helping to filter the Chesapeake Bay’s water.
But oyster farmers say the industry can’t grow without a private hatchery. Already, in the last two years, Maryland oyster farmers have had to cut promised production because they couldn’t procure the seed and larvae they needed to grow oysters. Chesapeake oyster farmers raise either single-seed oysters or in clumps as spat on shell. Either way, they need a hatchery to create the larvae.
Without a hatchery, said Hooper’s Island farmer Johnny Shockley, running an oyster aquaculture operation is “like trying to run a coal mine with no coal.”
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