Also visit the , CBF Oyster Gardening Web Page. Click on 'Maryland Oyster gardeners Click Here.'
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Oysters are the Chesapeake Bay's best natural filters. They also provide essential habitat for fish and other Bay creatures. Unfortunately, though, today's oyster population is estimated at only 2% of its original level. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Oyster Gardening Program gives people the opportunity to help bring back this vital species by growing oysters alongside their docks. Once grown, the adult oysters are returned to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for planting on sanctuary (non-harvest) reefs. As a first-time oyster gardener, you'll attend a 3-hour workshop where you'll build several cages (an 'oyster garden') in which to grow oysters. When you leave the workshop, you will have everything you need to grow oysters, including about 3,000 spat (young oysters). You'll then tend these oysters for about nine months. Keeping oysters in an oyster garden allows them maximum exposure to oxygen and plankton, which means they will grow faster than they would in their natural habitat on the Bay bottom. These big, nine-month-old oysters have a greater chance of surviving once planted on sanctuary reefs than they would if we simply took them right from the hatchery and planted them. After nine months of growing your oysters, you'll return them to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for planting on sanctuary oyster reefs. At the same time, you can pick up new spat to refill your garden, and continue growing oysters the next year. The hope is that each gardener will continue growing oysters year after year.
Your site must also have a minimum water depth of one foot, even during extreme conditions. This is because oysters will die if exposed to freezing AIR. (Interestingly, oysters can be frozen solid in the water and survive, but they will die if exposed to freezing air temperatures). If winter tides and winds combine to push the water in your creek below the one-foot level, leaving your oysters exposed to freezing air temperatures, your oysters may die. You can tie your oyster garden to a dock, pier, bulkhead or pilings. Oysters can be grown at a marina, community dock, vacation home, friend's house, etc., on the Chesapeake as long as you make sure you tend them regularly. This includes keeping an eye on them all winter long. (See, "How much time can I expect to spend tending my oysters?").
Oyster gardens need to be kept clean. When the weather is warm (May through September), you can expect to clean your oysters about once every two weeks. Each cleaning takes about two hours. Whenever oysters are feeding (about April through November), you should shake or tumble them every few days to dislodge any sediment and keep them from becoming ingrown in the wire mesh structure of your garden. This takes only a few minutes. During the winter months, you should keep an eye on your garden to make sure ice flows and severe weather does not damage it. And… PLEASE BRING BACK YOUR OYSTERS!!! CBF will set up dates and locations where you can bring in your old oysters and pick up new oyster spat for the next year. We want to make sure your adult oysters are among those living, filtering and reproducing on sanctuary oyster reefs, so please bring them back to us.
CBF will plant your oysters on sanctuary reefs in the Chesapeake Bay. Sanctuaries are areas from which oysters cannot be harvested. We have to be very careful about moving oysters around the Bay, because moving them can spread oyster diseases. We generally try to put oysters onto reefs on or near the river in which they are grown. Oysters can be moved from fresher water to saltier water without risk of spreading disease. They cannot be moved from saltier water to fresher water, as disease thrives in saltier water but can easily be spread to fresher water by transplanting oysters.
The Maryland Department of the Environment recommends against eating oysters grown from private piers for health reasons. CBF suggests all oyster gardeners follow this recommendation.
Come to one of the Oyster Gardening Workshops scheduled each year in late summer and fall (usually August, September, and October). The public is welcome to listen in during oyster gardening workshops, free of charge. Those wishing to participate in oyster gardening by building a garden and growing oysters are asked to participate financially in the program. The initial cost to get stated in the program is $75*. Each year after the initial year, CBF asks that volunteers participating in CBF-sponsored oyster gardening help the Foundation with the cost of 'spat' and materials associated with the project by making a $25 gift to the foundation.**
*Of this amount, $50 will go toward materials to build a volunteer oyster garden that remains the property of the volunteer. The remaining $25 helps the Foundation provide your 'spat' for growing. Since the oysters remain the property of CBF, this $25 is considered tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Volunteers understand that all oysters provided by the Foundation are to be returned at the end of the growing season. **This gift is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
Oyster seed, called spat, is usually only available seasonally due to the oyster's natural spawning cycle.