{"id":2964,"date":"2019-07-29T15:23:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T19:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/?p=2964"},"modified":"2019-07-29T15:23:22","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T19:23:22","slug":"waterways-in-talbot-county-reclassified-for-shellfish-harvesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/2019\/07\/29\/waterways-in-talbot-county-reclassified-for-shellfish-harvesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterways in Talbot County 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 Talbot County Reclassified for Shellfish Harvesting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sections of Broad and San Domingo creeks \u201cconditionally approved\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BALTIMORE, MD (July 29, 2019<\/span><\/span>) \u2013<\/strong>The Maryland Department of the Environment is reclassifying waterways in Talbot County for shellfish harvesting.<\/p>\n

About 294 acres of\u00a0harvesting waters<\/a>\u00a0in Broad Creek and about 88 acres in San Domingo Creek\u00a0will be reclassified from approved for shellfish harvesting to conditionally approved for direct harvesting. 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. The reclassification is effective today, July 29.<\/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

Three leases, all held by the same leaseholder, are located in the area reclassified as conditionally approved.<\/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

The Department of the Environment 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. 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

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   Waterways in Talbot County Reclassified for Shellfish Harvesting Sections of Broad and San Domingo creeks \u201cconditionally approved\u201d   BALTIMORE, MD (July 29, 2019) \u2013The Maryland Department of the Environment is reclassifying waterways in Talbot County for shellfish harvesting. About 294 acres of\u00a0harvesting waters\u00a0in Broad Creek and about  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-2964","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\/2964","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=2964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2965,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions\/2965"}],"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=2964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}