Watermans Convention a step in the right direction

[mosgo]

Since I became a waterman....14 years now, I have been going to the waterman's convention and This year was a surprise on how many oyster growing company's were set up. I attended sat and sunday and today I went around and asked each of the oyster aquaculture vendors what the response was. It was more than they expected

Including my self They had around 250 commercial large scale inquiries. And 100 or so recreational. I had to leave early so it could have been more. The seminar they had on the oyster growing process had a pretty fair attendance.

I know not all will follow through with growing oysters but it's a start.

Also I broke the wallet out and bought a few cages to replace my old ones and did alot of learning this past weekend.

The snow was hell and I have never seen that much snow in O.C in my life.

moses

[Patapsco Mike]

That company that had all the cages really had a great setup. For about $5k you can get enough equipment to grow a LOT of oysters.

I was amazed how many people were in attendance at the aquaculture session given how hard it was snowing at 1:00 on Saturday. I bet there were 50 people there, more than half of them raising their hands when I asked who in the audience was considering growing their own oysters.

Stan Allen's talk was an eye opener. If I were a grower I would certainly be interested in using an oyster strain that gets to market size in half the time, with almost no disease related mortality and twice the meat yield of a wild oyster grown in an adjacent cage...

It was a white knuckle, six hour drive to Baltimore in the driving snow. It took me almost 5 hours to get from O.C. to the Bay Bridge and I did not see any pavement the whole way.

[goose70]

Good news and great to hear! I wish everyone considering aquaculture the best of success. Despite all of the negative economic and ecological news, these are promising times for the Bay and its people.

[momon1023]

I was one of the guys sitting in on the lecture. It was crazy how bad it snowed. Yea for 5 grand you get 50,000 spat and the stuff to start up. Can't beat it

[27 sailfish]

I like oysters - had them from various places.
The float grown ones - IMHO - are much fuller/meatier. Only complaint - the leading edge of the shell is very thin. I was told because they grow so fast.
No big deal - pliers break it back about 1/4 inch so the blade can find the groove.

Each year there are more oyster " farmers " - glad it is catching on.

[Jonny Oyster Seed]

Yes, the interest in shellfish aquaculture is definitely growing - as witnessed at the Expo in OC... But it's also true that getting started in aquaculture takes some start-up capital, and might take 1 or 2 years to grow your first product (as well as your receive your first payday). For those reasons, among the traditional watermen, there's often a sense that getting into aquaculture is beyond their reach. I know Maryland is working on a plans for providing training and loan programs to assist watermen, but the State hasn't provided specifics just yet... It's this lack of details that's adding to the heartburn for watermen, who are facing large closures (for sanctuaries) under the Governor's new plan... They feel like they're getting forced out of a livelihood by politics - without a honest opportunity to find an alternative. Let's hope the State soon announces a workable plan for assisting watermen who want to give aquaculture a try.

[BILL H]

Unless watermen have been living in an alternate universe, where oyster stocks are not at 1-2% of historical levels, it is laughable for them to think that it is "politics" rather than water-quality conditions and their own over-harvesting, driving the decisions. In our universe, the problem has been known for years, so it is also hard to accept the thought that they haven't had an "honest" opportunity to find an alternative. As long as their alternative is something like "business as usual", then there is no alternative. Watermen, as much as they have contributed to the Chesapeake Bay culture and mystique, are no more immune to a changing world and a changing economy than buffalo hunters, buggy whip makers, textile workers, steel workers auto workers, or residential loan officers. We do not "owe" watermen a living on the water, any more than we "owed" those other groups a living related to what they used to do.

[Diamond Reef]

Easy to say when its not your heritage,or way of life

[goose70]

Easy to say when its not your heritage,or way of life

I don't think any of us suggested that this is easy to say. I and most with whom I've spoken are sympathetic to the watermen's plight. We understand how frustrating it can be to be blamed for the Bay's woes (and to be sure, some blame is justified), only to see wetlands filled in, forests chopped down and shorelines hardened to make room for waterfront McMansions whose owners spread fertilizer everywhere. Then, you see some of those same people demand that the watermen stop doing their thing. And you see other businesses, such as agriculture, continue to be allowed to pollute. That is why many of us support using our fees and tax dollars to help watermen transition to aquaculture, or even to "buy them out" regardless of what job they transition to.

The only easy part is recognizing that, regardless of the other factors associated with oyster decline, it is foolhardy to continued to harvest a critically important species that now sits at 1% of historic population.

[Barefoot]

Easy to say when its not your heritage,or way of life

If they hadn't spent $40 million dollars on oyster "restoration" in the last several years, the last oyster would have already been plucked from the bottom and sold...

[BILL H]

Just because it is not my heritage or way of life, doesn't mean it isn't a accurate assessment of the situation.

[mosgo]

Yes the problem has been around for years, But we were left with no other alternate options. A few years back it was nearly impossible to lease water on the bay to have floating cages and things like that because it posed as being a safety hazard. I have tried for years to get floating pens to raise fish in. NO LUCK. Now it's a option to do aquaculture and use floating pens with less struggle. Hopefully more will take on to growing oysters but until Dnr stops oystering ,people will do what the law allows them to.

I condemn any dishonest person, Waterman or not.

If water quality doesn't change there won't be a bay fishery . It needs to be a combined act from everyone to do their part to clean this bay up.

[Meat Hunter]

If they hadn't spent $40 million dollars on oyster "restoration" in the last several years, the last oyster would have already been plucked from the bottom and sold...

And the 40 million was a total waste. The agent in charge of Virginia's Oyster Replenishment plan admitted in front of a commission meeting at VMRC that the program was being run on his best guess and was not scientific. He also admitted that in his 16 years in charge of the program the waterman who has decades of applied knowledge had been left totally out of any process in the program. It should also be noted that the bars had been closed for most of the 16 years and when reopened were found not to have any more oysters than they did prior to the closing.