Citizens Working to Enhance Maryland's Oyster Reefs

Welcome to Marylanders Grow Oysters, where hundreds of waterfront property owners are growing millions of young oysters in cages suspended from private piers. Their goal? To protect young oysters during their vulnerable first year of life, so they may be planted on local sanctuaries where the oysters enrich the ecosystem and our oyster population.

There is no charge to participants, but the rewards – both personal and ecological – are significant. By fostering these young oysters, our citizen partners are also generating an abundance of fish and other aquatic life and creating live bottom, populated by oysters and other creatures, on sanctuaries closed to harvesting.

Initiated by Governor Martin O’Malley in September 2008, Marylanders Grow Oysters is managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in conjunction with the Oyster Recovery Partnership, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and local organizations. Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections inmates produce the cages for the program.

Students Take Part In Marylanders Grow Oysters Program

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) delivered 20 cages of oyster spat to children from the Chesapeake Montessori School Friday at Hollywood Farms in Annapolis. Read more...

Tred Avon Oysters Graduate!

Through July and some of August 2010, DNR collected the second year’s batch of oysters grown under the program in the Tred Avon River. The oysters were cared for by over 150 committed volunteer oyster growers who tended 858 cages. View a map of cage locations on the Tred Avon River. About 250,000 oysters were collected, but final numbers are still being tabulated due to the need to quickly shift focus after the Tred Avon to an expansion of the program to 7 new tributaries as well as the need to also assist other rivers with the collection of their oysters. DNR teamed up with the Wicomico River, Magothy River, and City Dock Annapolis to help collect oysters from their cages.

“Our citizen stewards in Talbot County have not only done a terrific job giving these baby oysters a head start on life, but they also have been a source of inspiration for other conservation minded Marylanders,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. Thanks to the participation of local organizers, the program, which uses cages built by Maryland inmates, expanded to 11 new tributaries in 2009 and to 7 more in 2010. .

Program Expands in 2011. Plans Beginning for 2012

In 2011, Marylanders Grow Oysters expanded to an additional 5 areas: Stoney Creek, Rock Creek, Fishing Creek at Chesapeake Beach, Balls Creek, and the Tilghman Island area including Harris Creek. There are now 24 creeks and rivers participating in Marylanders Grow Oysters, up from 1 in 2008. Tributaries are selected each year through an online application process which occurs in early spring. Each tributary has a local sponsor who leads the program by organizing the growers and distributing cages and oysters. DNR works closely with the local sponsor, providing guidance, advice, cages and oysters. View a map of all the tributaries.