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.

Tred Avon Oysters Graduate!

On August 12, 2009, DNR, ORP, watermen and volunteers began collecting the first batch of oysters grown under the program -- from 858 cages tended by 177 committed volunteers along the Tred Avon River -- and planting them on a sanctuary near Oxford. View a map of cage locations on the Tred Avon River.

“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, is currently expanding to 11 new Bay tributaries.

Program Expands to 11 New Tributaries

In 2009, Marylanders Grow Oysters has expanded into 11 new tributaries, which were selected earlier in the year through an online application process. 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.

Up to 5,000 cages are being distributed with oyster spat to volunteer growers in the Magothy, Severn, South, lower Patuxent, St. Mary’s, Wicomico, Corsica, lower Nanticoke, and Annemessex Rivers, as well as San Domingo and La Trappe Creeks. View a map of the new tributaries.