They help new gardeners with questions, research how various oyster strains are affected by environmental factors, and most popular of all, host oyster tastings and roasts.Īs longtime Tidewater member and supporter Doug Clark notes, “Oyster roasts and dinners are a great way to create stewardship and spread the word plus, eating the oysters that you grow is a delicious reward for each year’s work.” The Hoopers Island Oyster Kit comes ready to put in the water, seeds and all. The 23-year-old nonprofit and its 600-plus members, including over 100 expert-taught “Master Oyster Gardeners,” promotes oyster cultivation from the James to the Patuxent. To put it simply, the goal of the oyster gardening guide is to help Virginians “get hooked on oyster gardening.”įinally, those who wish to become hooked, or help others do the same, can also turn to the Tidewater Oyster Gardeners Association. fall), containment system options (Taylor floats, mesh bags, or cages), permitting, supplies (including area-appropriate, disease-resistant spat), set-up and maintenance, and harvesting (for consumption, donating to sanctuary reefs, or even building their own reef). While its highway signs say it is for lovers, Virginia is for oyster growers, too.ĬBF urges Virginians to become oyster gardeners, promising they will be “the easiest pet you’ll ever own.” The foundation offers seminars and “roundups,” or spat pick-ups, in Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, and Norfolk.Īnd while the state lacks a legislated program like Maryland’s, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality promotes the practice by providing citizens with the Virginia Oyster Gardening Guide: an exhaustive, soup-to-nuts resource that covers site evaluation (based on salinity, water depth, dissolved oxygen levels, plankton availability, and Virginia Department of Health field data), growing strategy (spring vs. The goal of all the programs is to engage and retain citizens who’ll not only keep providing healthy oysters for sanctuaries each spring and keep coming back for more spat to raise each September, but also to recruit additional growers-oyster-growing evangelism. ![]() A new oyster-gardening kit from Hoopers Island Oyster Co., available to order now for March 2021 pickup, includes seeds and equipment “ready to toss in the water with no fuss.” Then they can install the spat-filled cages on a dock, pier, bulkhead, or pilings in September tend them, with periodic cleaning and shaking to dislodge sediment and waste, for nine months and return the bivalves for planting on nearby sanctuary reefs in May or June.Īnd yes, ambitious Marylanders can strike out on their own, growing oysters independent of the two programs-as long as it’s for non-commercial purposes, in an approved area, and the grower registers with the state. Prospective oyster growers attend a three-hour workshop where they build their own oyster cages and receive the instruction and 1,000 to 2,000 spat they’ll need to grow them. MGO is modeled after the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s oyster gardening program, which helps waterfront homeowners within established boundaries set up their own oyster foster home. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation offers classes for new gardeners, covering everything from cage-building to planting the oysters. And as long as an area has a suitable number of people who want to join and a local coordinator, and can support oyster growth and survival, we’re always open to new groups coming in.” “Participants become part of a larger community of people helping their local area and the Bay by growing oysters. “The program has been tremendously popular over the years,” says MGO Director Christopher Judy. DNR now works in partnership with the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. ![]() Since then, the numbers have grown to over 1,500 private piers and roughly 7,800 cages across 30 different rivers, creeks, and coves, resulting in roughly two million citizen-grown oysters being planted in sanctuaries each year. They were planted roughly nine months later in local sanctuaries closed to harvesting. ![]() That year, MGO provided the owners of 177 private piers with 6,125 oyster cages (produced by state inmates), spat, and the know-how necessary to grow young oysters. The program goes back to the Tred Avon River in 2008. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Marylanders Grows Oysters (MGO) program aims to do just that, fostering citizens’ awareness and stewardship of their local river systems and the Bay through growing oysters. ![]() If you live on the water (or in a neighborhood with a community dock) and want to grow oysters, there’s a lot of support to help you get started. Growing oysters doesn’t take much work, according to advocates.
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