Announcement of “Grow Oysters” Project
September 23, 2008
As Prepared
It’s great to be here in Easton. There is nothing better than a beautiful morning on the Eastern Shore, where the eagle and osprey fly near the face of God.
Can we have a round of applause for our gracious hosts, Hope and Anthony Harrington? Hope and Anthony are the very first of what we hope will be many Maryland families who’ve agreed to plant oyster cages at their home – embracing our shared responsibility to serve as stewards of our natural resources, and reminding us all that each individual can make a difference.
I also want to recognize the Talbot County Council and President Foster, who’ve agreed to partner with us on this project, along with the Oyster Recovery Partnership, and everyone with the University of Maryland. And I want to acknowledge the pioneering work of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation – in particular Bill Goldsborough, whose research has been invaluable to these efforts.
Restoring Our Oyster Habitat
At a time when we’re going through one of our greatest economic challenges as a country – and when our middle class families are increasingly feeling squeezed – we believe it’s vital that we leave no stone unturned (no shell unopened) as we work to grow all the sectors of our economy.
Our aquaculture industry is one of those sectors where we see tremendous possibility for growth. Recently, I asked my cabinet to identify strategies for increasing aquaculture production and the related economic opportunities, and within the last few days they’ve delivered a report, which we’ll be acting on in the days ahead.
We’re here today to make a few announcements about an issue that’s central to our ability to support Maryland’s fishing industry and heal the Chesapeake Bay: restoring our Oyster population.
In Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, the character Pistol declares that “the world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open.” In our One Maryland, with oysters we’re opening up tremendous opportunities.
Oysters are important to our commercial fishing industry, and they help filter and clean our waterways. In addition, oyster reefs provide a habitat for a multitude of species. But despite their importance, our oyster population is suffering from disease, runoff, and loss of habitat.
However, we’re making progress and today we’re able to announce that in this year alone, working together we’ve planted 486 million oyster spat. That’s more than one third of the 1.4 billion hatchery-raised spat that were planted over the course of the last eight years.
We’re also announcing the kick off of a new partnership between your State government (DNR), the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the Oyster Restoration Partnership, and concerned citizens like the Harrington’s, who remind us of that timeless truth spoken by Justice Louis Brandeis: “the most important political office is that of the private citizen.”
Under this partnership, we’re starting a program called “Marylanders Grow Oysters” in which we’re asking waterfront property owners along the Tred Avon to become caretakers to several thousand oysters during their vulnerable first year of life, until they are large enough to be relocated to a protected sanctuary.
Our goal is to place 1,000 oyster cages at private piers by the end of October, and to expand to other areas of the watershed next year.
I also wanted to mention that the cages were built by inmates at the Eastern Correctional Institution – so this is a truly cooperative effort between multiple units of your State government.
Conclusion
Working together, we’ve been making some tremendous progress toward protecting our Oyster populations. Together, through our oyster restoration program, we’ve habilitated over 1,100 acres of oyster bars, with 915 of those acres now being actively managed as sanctuaries or harvest reserve sites.
Working together we’ve created the Oyster Advisory Commission, along with the Fisheries Management Task Force. And we’ve created the Chesapeake Bay 2010 trust fund and our BayStat initiative, to help restore our Bay.
Even in these difficult economic times, together we’re expanding opportunity to more Marylanders rather than fewer, including the opportunity to enjoy the environment we love. Thank you.
Next I’d like to call up Stephan Abel from the Oyster Recovery Partnership,…
