DNR Continuing to Monitor for Bay Impacts

[Skip]

Not trying to be smart - oysters can tolerate some nasty / polluted waters.

Certain areas are off limits to harvesting oysters - all the time - due to pollution concerns.

Other oyster beds have been closed for short periods when found to be contaminated by polluted water.

Sad part - sometimes oysters watermen would take them to market .

[reds]

Originally Posted by Skip

Not trying to be smart - oysters can tolerate some nasty / polluted waters.

Certain areas are off limits to harvesting oysters - all the time - due to pollution concerns.

Other oyster beds have been closed for short periods when found to be contaminated by polluted water.

Sad part - sometimes oysters watermen would take them to market .

Yeah. They tolerate polluted waters, but they don't reproduce.
What happens when Dermo and MSX goes on the upswing again?

Unless the bay is cleaned up, the diseases will find a way to keep the oyster population down.

[Spot77]

Originally Posted by Skip

Not trying to be smart - oysters can tolerate some nasty / polluted waters.

Certain areas are off limits to harvesting oysters - all the time - due to pollution concerns.

Other oyster beds have been closed for short periods when found to be contaminated by polluted water.

Sad part - sometimes oysters watermen would take them to market .

Originally Posted by reds

Yeah. They tolerate polluted waters, but they don't reproduce.
What happens when Dermo and MSX goes on the upswing again?

Unless the bay is cleaned up, the diseases will find a way to keep the oyster population down.

So are we in a big circle of never seeing any gains?

The oysters can't survive because of disease and pollution and the disease and pollution will stay rampant because there's no oysters to filter the water?

It's a shame people decades ago couldn't foresee this problem. I have a client who used to work at the Coast Guard yard in Curtis Bay. He told me how the ships' maintenance crews used to just dump leftover paints and solvents into the water to get rid of them.

In the ealy 90's I volunteered on a few cleanups of the Patapsco Valley State Park land along River Rd in Linthicum. People used to dump SO much trash and old tires along there....it was disgusting.

[Skip]

Reds - There is evidence that the oysters are becoming immune to the diseases that almost wiped them out.

Key - IMHO - is to allow these oysters to breed. Taking the survivors makes little sense in the long run.

There are reports of very good spat this year - that could jump start the recovery of oysters.

I sometimes fish out of Wachapreaque and see oyster bars that break the surface.

Years ago - way back - oyster bars in the bay were considered a navigation hazard. They broke surface on low tide - in 12 feet of water.

It makes no sense to me to continue to harvest something at 2% of former population. Guess if the bay were to get cleaned up - some would be out great paying jobs .