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- Spring 2012 Oyster Return
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Our return day this year will be Saturday June 9.
- Now that spring, such as it is, has arrived, it is time to plan to return your oysters to us. This year, we will be doing it somewhat differently from in the past.
We are partnering with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to provide a single, unified return event for all gardeners whose oysters can be planted on our West River reef.
As you know, to avoid spreading disease we plant ONLY oysters grown in the West and Rhode Rivers and any place NORTH of those rivers (that is, with lower salinity and, hence, less chance of disease).
We will be collecting your oysters at the CBF Oyster Restoration Center (ORC) at Discovery Village in Shady Side on June 9 from 10 to noon.
CBF will be collecting oysters along with us and will be offering tours of the facility and also boat trips to the reef site.
If you have not been to ORC, this is your chance to see the setting tanks and the oyster vessel Patricia Campbell, which planted the seed on our reefs to get us started in 2003.
Because this is a CBF event, they require registration so that they can prepare. You should have already recevied an e-mail on May 1 from Meghan Hoffman concerning
the CBF oyster return days and, of course, you are always free to return your
oysters to their other events. To register go to http://www.cbf.org/page.aspx?pid=395
If you are not registered, you may not be able to particpate in tours or any other free activities that day, but be assured that we will still accept your oysters.
This will be our ninth POWeR oyster return and you, the West and Rhode River gardeners, have supplied 178,862 adult oysters to the reef.
Oysters from CBF collections over the years have brought the total on the reef to over a quarter of a million.
As you can see, there are numerous opportunities to return your oysters. If you cannot come to any of them, you can contact me at
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- How are our oysters doing?
- We have recently sampled both POWeR sites and find some mortality but also a lot of large oysters.
There is some silting on the outer edges of the reef sites. Some of the dead oyster shells contained fish with their eggs (Blenies, Naked Gobies).
So even after they die, the oysters are contributing to the ecology. Here are pictures of this year's sampling by Steve and DJ wuth assistance of Joe Ports from the riverkeeper.
- Water Quality in the West and Rhode Rivers
- Last year (2011) was not good for the oysters. Heavy rains in the spring and then again in the fall kept the salinity low for most of the season.
The oysters show very little growth and some of the young may have died.
- In July 2007 the West and Rhode Riverkeeper began a program of sampling the water quality in the two rivers every week on Wednesday
through the end of October. Sampling has begun since 2008 in early May. There are now data available for four complete seasons and the
2007 partial season comprising measurements of dissolved oxygen (DO in mg/l), percent of saturation of dissolved oxygen (DO in %),
salinity (parts per thousand - ppt) and temperature. Measurements were taken one foot below the surface (top)
and one foot above the bottom (bottom) at a number of sites throughout the watershed.
The data have now been analyzed and you can read the report here.
The data used here can be seen on the Water Quality Monitoring section of the riverkeeper website at westrhoderiverkeeper.org.
- Not yet an oyster gardener?
- Workshops are held in the fall (due to the availability of spat).
Here is information on how to become a gardener.
To sign up to become an oyster gardener in the 2011 season, contact Meghan Hoffman at CBF
at MDoystergardening@cbf.org
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 The West River Improvment Association,
(WRIA), is dedicated to the principle that, by working together, residents of Galesville and the surrounding area can protect and improve the quality of life in
the community, including the West River watershed
The Shady Side Peninsula Association,
is the association of citizens' groups and communities on the Shady Side Peninsula
Citizens in the West River community are establishing individual oyster gardens with guidance from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation
to provide new one-year old oysters to the santuaries in the coming years.
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