Samantha Kappalman<\/strong> Jay Apperson<\/strong> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n WATERWAYS IN ST. MARY\u2019S COUNTY RECLASSIFIED FOR SHELLFISH HARVESTING<\/strong><\/p>\n Portion of Carthagena Creek closed to harvesting; Jutland Creek reclassified as \u201cconditionally approved\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n BALTIMORE, MD (June 27, 2014<\/strong>) \u2013 The Maryland Department of the Environment is reclassifying portions of two waterways in St. Mary\u2019s County for shellfish harvesting.<\/p>\n A\u00a0portion of Carthagena Creek<\/a>\u00a0that had been approved for shellfish harvesting has been reclassified as restricted, meaning that it is closed to shellfish harvesting. The change, effective\u00a0Monday, June 30, is due to recent evaluations showing unacceptable bacteria levels in portions of the creek. About 36 acres of the creek are affected by this change. The headwaters of the creek remain closed to shellfish harvesting.<\/p>\n Evaluations of shellfish harvesting waters in\u00a0Jutland Creek<\/a>\u00a0support a reclassification from approved for harvesting to \u201cconditionally approved.\u201d In areas that are conditionally approved oysters and clams can be harvested at any time with the exception of any rain event of one inch or more, which requires that the area be closed for three days and then re-opened unless another rain event occurred during that time. This change, also effective\u00a0Monday, June 30, affects about 289 acres of waterway.<\/p>\n MDE conducts regular surveys to identify potential pollution sources near shellfish harvesting waters, but the cause of an increase in bacteria levels is not always known, and no specific cause has been identified for the increased levels in Carthagena Creek or Jutland Creek.<\/p>\n Information on\u00a0shellfish harvesting areas<\/a>\u00a0is available on MDE\u2019s website. These designations apply only to the harvesting of shellfish (oysters and clams); they do not apply to fishing or crabbing.\u00a0Consumption advisories<\/a>\u00a0for recreationally caught fish and crabs can also be found on MDE\u2019s website.<\/p>\n MDE monitors bacteriological water quality and conducts pollution source surveys to determine which areas are safe for the harvesting of shellfish. The Department is required to close areas that do not meet the strict water quality standards for shellfish harvesting waters and it has a longstanding policy to reopen areas to shellfish harvesting when water quality improves.<\/p>\n Shellfish are filter feeders with the ability to filter water and get food from microscopic organisms in the water. If the waters are polluted, this filtering process can concentrate disease-causing organisms associated with raw sewage and other sources, such as animal waste. Oysters and clams are often eaten raw or partially cooked and must come from waters that are not polluted.<\/p>\n These actions are necessary to protect public health by preventing harvest from the areas impacted and ensure Maryland remains in compliance with the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MEDIA CONTACTS: Samantha Kappalman samantha.kappalman@maryland.gov Jay Apperson jay.apperson@maryland.gov FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: WATERWAYS IN ST. MARY\u2019S COUNTY RECLASSIFIED FOR SHELLFISH HARVESTING Portion of Carthagena Creek closed to harvesting; Jutland Creek reclassified as \u201cconditionally approved\u201d BALTIMORE, MD (June 27, 2014) \u2013 The Maryland Department of the Environment is reclassifying portions of two waterways in St. Mary\u2019s Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","category-seafoodaquaculture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1080,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions\/1080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
samantha.kappalman@maryland.gov<\/a><\/p>\n
jay.apperson@maryland.gov<\/a><\/p>\n