{"id":2516,"date":"2017-12-04T15:57:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T20:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/?p=2516"},"modified":"2017-12-04T16:00:05","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T21:00:05","slug":"anne-arundel-county-waterway-reclassified-for-shellfish-harvesting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/2017\/12\/04\/anne-arundel-county-waterway-reclassified-for-shellfish-harvesting-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Arundel County Waterway Reclassified for Shellfish Harvesting"},"content":{"rendered":"
MEDIA CONTACTS:<\/span><\/h5>\n

Jay Apperson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(410) 537-3003<\/a>
\njay.apperson@maryland.gov<\/a><\/p>\n

Anne Arundel County Waterway Reclassified for Shellfish Harvesting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Portion of Rhode River section closed in 2016 now \u201cconditionally approved\u201d; change allows leaseholders to resume harvesting<\/em><\/p>\n

Baltimore, MD (December 4, 2017<\/span><\/span>) \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The Maryland Department of the Environment has reclassified a portion of the Rhode River in Anne Arundel County for shellfish harvesting.<\/p>\n

About 185 acres of the river have been reclassified from \u201crestricted to shellfish harvesting\u201d to \u201cconditionally approved.\u201d\u00a0That part of the river<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 downstream from Big Island, which is south of Sheepshead Cove \u2013 is part of a larger portion of the river that was closed to shellfish harvesting in 2016 due to evaluations of bacteria levels in the river.<\/p>\n

The change \u2013 which is effective today, Monday, Dec. 4 \u2013 is based on a recent evaluation of potential pollution sources and water testing that showed decreased levels of bacteria.<\/p>\n

The June 2016 closure of more than 1,000 acres of the Rhode River affected seven lease sites. A November 2016 reclassification of 257 acres of that area of the river allowed normal operations to resume at four of the sites. This reclassification allows normal operations to resume at two more sites.<\/p>\n

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 an affected area be closed for three days and then re-opened unless another rain event occurred during that time.<\/p>\n

The Department of the Environment 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

Other portions of the river further upstream remain closed to direct harvesting. Harvesting will not be permitted in restricted areas unless the lease holders apply for a relay permit from the Department of the Environment. Under that permit, shellfish can be harvested from closed areas if the oysters are moved, or relayed, to another lease in approved waters for at least two weeks during the time of year when the oysters are actively pumping water through their bodies. This ensures that the oysters naturally cleanse themselves so they can be harvested and sold to consumers.<\/p>\n

Shellfish are filter feeders with the ability to filter water and get food from microscopic organisms in the water. If the waters have elevated bacteria levels, the risk is greater that pathogens may be present, and this filtering process can then concentrate any disease-causing organisms. Oysters and clams are often eaten raw or partially cooked and must come from waters that are within acceptable bacteria levels.<\/p>\n

These actions are necessary to protect public health by preventing harvest from the areas affected and ensure Maryland remains in compliance with the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.<\/p>\n

Information on\u00a0shellfish harvesting areas<\/a>\u00a0is available on the department\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 the department\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDIA CONTACTS: Jay Apperson (410) 537-3003 jay.apperson@maryland.gov Anne Arundel County Waterway Reclassified for Shellfish Harvesting Portion of Rhode River section closed in 2016 now \u201cconditionally approved\u201d; change allows leaseholders to resume harvesting Baltimore, MD (December 4, 2017) \u2013\u00a0The Maryland Department of the Environment has reclassified a portion of the Rhode River in Anne Arundel County  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,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2516","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\/2516","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=2516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2524,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions\/2524"}],"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=2516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}