MARYLAND - An oyster reef amendment is now being attached to a federal spending bill.
The bill passed Committee 32-28. The funds available by this bill can only be used to plant oysters for commercial harvest by licensed watermen.
Oyster restoration, recovery and other activities in the Chesapeake Bay are prohibited to receive funding from NOAA, if they're not opened up for harvesting within 3 years.
Congressman Harris says he hopes more oysters will be available to harvest.
"There's nothing wrong with creating sanctuaries," he says. But that bottom needs to be worked, and and it can be harvested occasionally. And then it's a win-win situation."
Julie Luecke is the Maryland Coastal Resource Scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She says the portfolio of benefits is a goal in oyster restoration.
"When you condition funding on harvest, you're severely limiting the amount of restoration that can be done, and therefore the amount of those benefits that is accruing to all Marylanders."
Oyster season is set to begin in October and last through March of next year.
