{"id":2738,"date":"2018-09-10T14:35:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T18:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/?p=2738"},"modified":"2018-09-10T14:35:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T18:35:35","slug":"waterways-in-st-marys-calvert-counties-reclassified-for-shellfish-harvesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/2018\/09\/10\/waterways-in-st-marys-calvert-counties-reclassified-for-shellfish-harvesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterways in St. Mary’s, Calvert Counties 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

 <\/p>\n

Waterways in St. Mary’s, Calvert Counties Reclassified for Shellfish Harvesting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Battle and Sotterly creeks closed to harvesting, portions of St. Jerome Creek opened<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BALTIMORE, MD (September 10, 2018<\/span><\/span>) \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The Maryland Department of the Environment has reclassified waterways in St. Mary\u2019s and Calvert counties for shellfish harvesting.<\/p>\n

About\u00a0134 acres of St. Jerome Creek<\/a>\u00a0in St. Mary\u2019s County have been reclassified from \u201crestricted\u201d to \u201capproved\u201d for shellfish harvesting. This change affects about 49 acres in North Prong and about 86 acres in Taylor Cove. Some portions of the North Prong remain closed to shellfish harvesting.<\/p>\n

Two tributaries to the Patuxent River, totaling about 72 acres, have been reclassified from approved for shellfish harvesting to restricted. This change affects\u00a0about 62 acres of Battle Creek<\/a>\u00a0in Calvert County and about\u00a010 acres of Sotterly Creek<\/a>\u00a0in St. Mary\u2019s County.<\/p>\n

All reclassifications are effective Sept. 10, 2018.<\/p>\n

The reclassifications are due to recent evaluations of bacteria levels in portions of the waterways. The Department of the Environment 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 this area.<\/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

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

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: Jay Apperson (410) 537-3003 jay.apperson@maryland.gov   Waterways in St. Mary’s, Calvert Counties Reclassified for Shellfish Harvesting Battle and Sotterly creeks closed to harvesting, portions of St. Jerome Creek opened   BALTIMORE, MD (September 10, 2018) \u2013\u00a0The Maryland Department of the Environment has reclassified waterways in St. Mary\u2019s and Calvert counties for shellfish harvesting.  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-2738","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\/2738","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=2738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2739,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions\/2739"}],"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=2738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}