Blog: Saving the Oyster

Statement

This morning, we stood with stakeholders, fishery managers and scientists to announce the next step in our plan to save the native oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay. We announced our plan to submit regulations to the General Assembly to expand oyster sanctuaries and aquaculture leasing areas for their ecological and economic benefits. These proposed regulations would add millions to Maryland's economy, create hundreds of jobs, and leverage the natural filtering benefits of oysters to help in our Bay clean-up efforts.

If you compare Maryland to virtually any other state, we're in a better position to recover stronger and sooner, and that's why our focus remains on creating jobs, saving jobs, and protecting our quality of life. That's why today's proposed regulations focus on the development of an aquaculture industry -- and the hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in economic impact that it will eventually bring.

Just last month, we announced that as a result of the tough decisions and science-based strategy we implemented to help save the blue crab population, that population rose last year to its highest level since 1997. In ddition, watermen actually harvested more crabs this past season than in 7 of the past 10 years, confirming the long-held belief that a healthy harvesting industry can coexist with regulations that protect the long term health of the blue crab population. We're confident that with these proposed regulations to save the native oyster population, we'll experience similar positive results from following the same science-based approach.

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