{"id":2568,"date":"2018-02-13T12:06:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T17:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/?p=2568"},"modified":"2018-02-13T12:06:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T17:06:54","slug":"kent-narrows-temporarily-opening-for-shellfish-harvesting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/2018\/02\/13\/kent-narrows-temporarily-opening-for-shellfish-harvesting-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent Narrows Temporarily Opening 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

Kent Narrows Temporarily Opening for Shellfish Harvesting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

BALTIMORE, MD (February 13, 2018<\/span><\/span>) \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The Maryland Department of the Environment is temporarily reclassifying waters in the Kent Narrows in Queen Anne\u2019s County from closed to open to allow oysters and clams to be harvested.<\/p>\n

The change became effective Monday, Feb. 12. The opening will remain in effect until the end of the 2018 oyster season (March 31<\/span><\/span>\u00a0or an alternate date determined by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources). At that time\u00a0the area<\/a>\u00a0will again be closed to harvesting.<\/p>\n

The Kent Narrows are usually closed to shellfish harvesting due to the high volume of boats, marinas and onshore activities in the area with the potential to negatively affect shellfish water quality. However, during winter boating activities are minimal and the effect on water quality is reduced. Watermen from the area contacted the departments of the Environment and Natural Resources to request a seasonal opening of Kent Narrows. An investigation of the water quality and shellfish tissue shows that this area meets the strict requirements necessary for shellfish harvesting waters. The area was also temporarily opened for shellfish harvesting in February 2017.<\/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) and 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDIA CONTACTS: Jay Apperson (410) 537-3003 jay.apperson@maryland.gov Kent Narrows Temporarily Opening for Shellfish Harvesting BALTIMORE, MD (February 13, 2018) \u2013\u00a0The Maryland Department of the Environment is temporarily reclassifying waters in the Kent Narrows in Queen Anne\u2019s County from closed to open to allow oysters and clams to be harvested. The change became effective Monday, Feb.  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-2568","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\/2568","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=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2569,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions\/2569"}],"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=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}