TODDVILLE, Md. - Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released its annual oyster survey, reporting that the Chesapeake Bay’s oyster population is booming. Researchers credit the weather for the good news.
Oysters are a sensitive species, and too much or too little rain can mean life or death for the mollusks, according to Lynn Fegley with DNR.
"Salinity is really a balance because when you have high salinity that really encourages good reproduction, it also encourages disease," said Fegley, director of Fishing and Boating Services with DNR.
She said a combination of heavy rainfall and a drought in the fall helped keep the spat-on-shell population above the 39-year average for the fifth consecutive year. Biologists collected 364 samples from almost 300 oyster bars between October and November.
"Disease was down, mortality was down, and the overall population is still trending upward," she said.
This is something oysterman Tim Robinson has noticed firsthand.
"Well, the oysters are in good shape. The the meats are good in them. You rarely you see a poor one. So the water quality evidently is good enough for them now," Robinson said.
He also pointed to efforts to reduce pollution as a factor.
"We're doing pretty good with it. I mean, with the dredging is cleaning your shells off. So that helps with the good spat catch. We just got to kind of make sure we're not having the runoff. Uh that's detrimental to everything out there," he said.
As for what this could mean for next year’s harvest, Robinson said it's too early to tell.
"It's up to the oyster haha," he said. And the weather.
DNR predicts next year’s season could be promising for watermen as long as the region experiences a mix of rainy and dry days.