Call for Oyster Moratorium Fails to Sway Watermen, Officials
Study shows that the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay has declined 92 percent since 1980.
By Greg Masters Capital News Service ANNAPOLIS — The Chesapeake Bay's oyster population has plummeted since the late 1960s, when Willy Dean, a Maryland waterman since the age of 17, would go hand tonging with his father and "load the boat with oysters." "The catch is way, way down from what it was back then," Dean said. The population is so low that several scientists recommended a complete halt on oyster harvesting in a study published in August by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. But a moratorium has not gained traction among watermen and state officials, who see the industry as an important tradition and a small but significant part of the state's economy. "People would have to get other jobs, leave the …
Bob
4:56 pm on Friday, December 9, 2011
wow. Just another story to show how greed and gross negligence by the gov't is ruining our fisheries. First it was gross overfishing by omega protein, now watermen wiping out oysters. what's next? more ›