Maryland Watermen Win Changes to Oyster Reef Restoration, Welcome Support of New Governor
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Baltimore Sun] By Tim Wheeler - May 29, 2015
Maryland's ambitious campaign to restore the Chesapeake Bay's once-legendary bivalves opened a new front this spring, continuing the largest shellfish restoration effort of its kind on the East Coast, if not anywhere.
But watermen, still bothered over losing harvestable waters to the restoration effort five years ago, have managed to get a few changes in the construction of new reefs in oyster sanctuaries in the Tred Avon and two other tributaries of the Choptank River.
Those minor changes in construction of the sanctuaries — plus the recent departure of the state Department of Natural Resources official overseeing shellfish programs — could be signs of watermen's growing influence in fisheries management under Gov. Larry Hogan, who has vowed to end what he has called his predecessor's "war on watermen."
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