Shell Recovery

Shell Recovery

Maryland watermen are helping the Chesapeake Bay by reclaiming oyster shells from past plantings.

One of the biggest issues we foresee in the future is the need for shell — both shucked shell for aquaculture and restoration activities and dredged shell to harden bottoms. Shucked oyster shell is vital to efforts to enhance the native oyster population. Oyster shells are the most cost effective and efficient material to repopulate the Chesapeake Bay’s native oyster population and are used by the UMCES Horn Point Lab Hatchery and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Piney Point hatchery to create spat on shell that is used to rebuild oyster reefs.

Maryland has seen a steady decline in the amount of shell that it acquires from its Oyster Shell Purchase Program from oyster shucking houses. To support DNR’s shell collection program, the Oyster Recovery Partnership initiated a shell recycling program to collect disregarded shell from restaurants, catering businesses and seafood wholesalers.

In 2012, ORP in cooperation with DNR and watermen county-based organizations reclaimed shell from past shell plantings  around the Bay to rebuild the shell base of natural oyster bars that are then reseeded with natural or hatchery produced oyster seed. Over 400,000 bushels shell were reclaimed and planted on public fishery oyster reefs and on leases. New strategies are being investigated to determine preferred methods to increase the efficiency in acquiring buried shell.