Samantha Kappalman<\/strong> Jay Apperson<\/strong> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Portion of Fishing Creek in Anne Arundel County Opened For Shellfish Harvesting BALTIMORE, MD (March 28, 2014<\/strong>) \u2013 The Maryland Department of the Environment is reclassifying a portion of Fishing Creek in Anne Arundel County to allow oysters and clams to be harvested.<\/p>\n The\u00a0portion of Fishing Creek<\/a>\u00a0that is being reclassified from \u201crestricted\u201d to \u201capproved\u201d for shellfish harvesting is downstream from Arundel on the Bay. The headwaters of Fishing Creek remain classified as restricted, meaning that they are closed to shellfish harvesting.<\/p>\n The change \u2013 which is effective\u00a0Monday, March 31\u00a0\u2013 is based on a recent evaluation of potential pollution sources and testing of the waters and shellfish that showed decreased levels of indicator bacteria.\u00a0It will open about 98 acres of waters to shellfish harvesting, including about seven acres of oyster leases.<\/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\u00a0 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 \u00a0<\/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: Portion of Fishing Creek in Anne Arundel County Opened For Shellfish Harvesting Bacteria levels decrease; area \u201capproved\u201d for harvesting starting March 31 BALTIMORE, MD (March 28, 2014) \u2013 The Maryland Department of the Environment is reclassifying a portion of Fishing Creek in Anne Arundel 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-714","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\/714","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=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":715,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/715"}],"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=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"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
<\/strong>Bacteria levels decrease; area \u201capproved\u201d for harvesting starting March 31<\/em><\/p>\n