{"id":9169,"date":"2015-10-01T10:01:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T14:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=9169"},"modified":"2017-04-14T16:04:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T20:04:28","slug":"oyster-harvest-season-opens-today-in-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2015\/10\/01\/oyster-harvest-season-opens-today-in-maryland\/","title":{"rendered":"Oyster Harvest Season Opens Today in Maryland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 378px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c2.staticflickr.com\/8\/7308\/9737101684_5086d47cb5_o.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"368\" height=\"446\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hand tonging for oysters in Broad Creek. Photo by Jay Fleming<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The 2015-2016 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/maryland\/fishing\/oysters-clams\/\" target=\"_blank\">oyster harvest season<\/a> kicks off today in Maryland. The six-month season runs from Oct. 1 through March 31.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cooling weather signals the gradual transition from harvesting blue crabs to oysters, and reminds us how fortunate we are in Maryland to have these resources,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr2.maryland.gov\/Pages\/DNR_Secretary.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Natural Resources Secretary Mark Belton<\/a> said. \u201cIt also signals that we have the duty and responsibility to protect this Chesapeake Bay tradition for future generations by being good stewards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maryland\u00a0had\u00a01,134\u00a0licensed oyster harvesters\u00a0last season. A similar number is expected this year. For the first month of the season, only hand tonging, patent tonging and diving are permitted. Power and sail dredging begin\u00a0Nov. 1, when harvest activity rises dramatically.<\/p>\n<p>Maryland\u2019s watermen harvested a total of\u00a0393,588\u00a0bushels with a dockside value of\u00a0$17.3\u00a0million in 2014-2015 \u2500 the\u00a0second\u00a0highest total in at least 15 years due to healthy oyster reproduction in 2010 and 2012. The <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr2.maryland.gov\/fisheries\/Documents\/FSR_2014.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">2014 Fall Oyster Survey<\/a> indicated that the oyster population is continuing to\u00a0hold steady,\u00a0with a biomass index \u2500 a combined measure of oyster abundance and size \u2500 more than doubling since 2010 to reach\u00a0near its\u00a0highest point since this type of monitoring began in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>However, due to reduced oyster reproduction in recent years, the harvest will likely see a decline this season.<\/p>\n<p>In order to protect this resource, the men and women of the Natural Resources Police will employ water patrols, aerial and radar surveillance, and inspection of wholesale and retail establishments. Violators will have their cases heard in district court before a judge well-versed in natural resources law.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, officers wrote 281 citations for oyster violations ranging from possessing undersized oysters to poaching oysters in protected sanctuaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2015-2016 oyster harvest season kicks off today in Maryland. The six-month season runs from Oct. 1 through March 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9195,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9169\/revisions\/9195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}