In a potentially serious blow to oyster restoration efforts in Maryland, the Trump administration has slashed federal funding that supports the operation of the state-run oyster hatchery on the Eastern Shore.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is cutting nearly in half the $740,000 grant it has provided annually for spawning and rearing oysters at the Horn Point laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).
The cut comes on the heels of the successful conclusion of a more than decade-long campaign to restore oysters in 10 Chesapeake Bay tributaries in Maryland and Virginia — an effort the state-federal Chesapeake Bay Program is now looking to expand. It also comes as Congress, in a rare show of bipartisanship, has increased rather than cut federal funding for Bay oyster restoration efforts.
The Horn Point hatchery, one of the largest on the East Coast, has played a central role in the restoration of oyster reefs in Maryland’s five tributaries. Its annual output of oyster larvae since 2020 has ranged from 400 million to nearly 2 billion.
The hatchery sells some of those larvae to private oyster farmers, but three-quarters of the newly spawned bivalves are set or attached to oyster shells and planted on the bottom of Bay tributaries targeted by the state for restoration.
Mike Sieracki, director of the Horn Point lab on the Choptank River near Cambridge, MD, said NOAA offered no explanation for its decision, communicated last year, to trim $340,000 from its grant, effective April 1, 2026. The federal agency has awarded at least two multi-year grants through the state Department of Natural Resources to support the hatchery, he said, with 2026 set to be the last installment of the latest grant.
Over more than a decade, Maryland partnered with NOAA, other federal agencies and nonprofit groups to successfully restore 1,300 acres of oyster habitat in the state’s five targeted tributaries.
In Virginia’s portion of the Bay, water salinity is high enough that oysters there reproduce well on their own; all the freshly spawned larvae need is another oyster shell or something hard to attach to. In the lower salinity waters of Maryland, though, natural reproduction is less reliable, so hatcheries are needed to jump-start the process of repopulating reefs.
Stephanie Alexander, manager of the Horn Point hatchery, estimated the UMCES facility has produced 90% or more of the 6 billion juvenile oysters that have been planted in Maryland’s tributaries — Harris Creek and the Tred Avon, Little Choptank, St. Mary’s and Manokin rivers.
Monitoring of the restored reefs up to six years afterward has found dense populations of planted oysters surviving and growing.
Perspectives on funding
Given the success so far of Bay oyster restoration, Sieracki said, the Horn Point hatchery’s contribution to that effort is “such a great return on taxpayer money that it’s just sort of odd that they chose to cut this.”
In response to Bay Journal emails, various NOAA spokespeople declined to say why agency officials cut the hatchery grant.
But Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican whose district includes the Horn Point lab, offered a statement through a spokesperson supporting the reduction. He said the hatchery’s output does not help Bay watermen, many of whom live in his mostly Eastern Shore district.
“As co-chair of the Congressional Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force,” he said, “my focus is making sure federal oyster restoration dollars support working watermen and the long-term health of the Chesapeake Bay.”
Harris said that after talking with NOAA, local officials and watermen, he had concluded that “the current funding model isn’t working for public fisheries or the people who depend on them.”
Although the restoration projects have been credited by environmentalists and scientists with improving fish habitat and water quality, Maryland watermen have long complained that the state’s five large-scale oyster restoration projects — which cost more than $92 million in state and federal funds — were a waste of money that did nothing to help the seafood industry.
The Horn Point hatchery’s output focuses mainly on rebuilding reefs in sanctuaries that are closed to commercial harvest, Harris noted. By contrast, he pointed to another privately owned hatchery in his district, Ferry Cove near Tilghman, which produces and sells its larvae and spat-on-shell for placement on reefs accessible to watermen.
“President Trump has been clear that domestic food production matters,” Harris concluded, “and I support shifting federal funding toward programs that support watermen, rebuild public fisheries and protect the Chesapeake Bay.”
Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), another co-chair of the bipartisan congressional Bay watershed caucus, voiced support for the Horn Point hatchery. She said its “interdisciplinary, cutting-edge work … is critical to the success of the Bay agreement.”
Legislation recently introduced by Elfreth and other House members from Bay states would reauthorize “key programs” at NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay office, she pointed out. Though the bill does not specifically identify the UMCES lab for support, Elfreth said she was “committed to exploring every possible avenue to ensure full funding of Horn Point’s work.”
Production impacts
Sieracki said that without the full NOAA grant, the hatchery may have to cut back or shift its operation to a more commercial footing — selling more oyster larvae and spat to oyster farmers, for instance. That could put them in competition with privately run hatcheries, he noted.
The annual NOAA funding had been enough to support the hatchery’s operation for about nine months, Alexander said, with the rest of the hatchery’s income provided by other sources, including sales of larvae and spat-on-shell.
With the grant reduction not kicking in until April, Sieracki said, “we’re working on how it’s going to affect people.” The hatchery is staffed with sevenfull-time employees and one part-timer, plus 6 to 8 interns. Even with funding uncertain, UMCES has announced it is taking applications for internships in 2026.
“We’re going to still have interns,” Sieracki said. “We’re not sure how many.”
Ward Slacum, director of the nonprofit Oyster Recovery Partnership, said that a cutback at Horn Point could slow down future restoration efforts. Maryland and Virginia joined with the federal government in December in pledging to “restore or conserve at least 2,000 additional acres of oyster reef habitat” by 2040.
If Horn Point isn’t able to supply enough spat-on-shell to meet the timetable, Slacum said that his group, which works with Maryland on restoring sanctuary reefs but also with nonprofit groups and even commercial watermen’s groups, may turn to private hatcheries to meet its needs. That could tighten the overall supply and raise prices, he noted.
“It’s a bit of a travesty,” he said. “I think it’s short sighted. There was an investment in that hatchery and our [oyster] infrastructure as a whole … We have built this up and scaled this up over a couple decades. If we’re going to pull the plug or pull back on it, it [will] have an impact.”
Federal landscape
The NOAA cut came last year as the Trump administration rescinded or revoked federal grants wholesale and proposed deep reductions in payroll and spending for fiscal year 2026 across the federal government. For NOAA as a whole, the administration called for a 27% cut overall.
With Congress unable to agree on a budget, the federal government operated under continuing resolutions that maintained funding at previously approved levels. But the Trump administration, using its budget as a guide, pared back spending anyway, rescinding grants, closing offices and reducing the federal workforce through buyouts and layoffs.
On Jan. 8, House and Senate leaders announced bipartisan agreement on a three-bill legislative package to fund NOAA and some other departments and agencies through the rest of the federal budget year, which ends Sept. 30. It provides $6.2 billion for NOAA — which is $1.7 billion above Trump’s budget request.
The House passed its NOAA-related funding measure on Jan. 8. Harris, chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, voted for it, as did Elfreth. On Jan. 15, the Senate passed it without amendment. The president signed it into law eight days later.
The spending measure provides $3.25 million for NOAA to work on oyster restoration in the Chesapeake — an increase of $1.5 million. While the bill doesn’t detail how the money should be spent, a spokesman for Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said the increase is “more than sufficient” to fully fund the Horn Point grant.
Whether NOAA will restore the grant to its full amount remains to be seen. Before the votes in Congress, NOAA spokespeople refused, as one put it, to “speculate” on what might happen.
“We cannot comment on questions related to budget proposals that remain deliberative and pre-decisional,” said Kim Doster, NOAA’s communications director. Doster did not respond to emails after the Senate approval sent the funding bills to the White House.
Sieracki, the Horn Point lab director, said he and the hatchery staff remain hopeful that the needed funding will come through.
“In this day and age,” he said, “I’m not that much of an optimist. But I’ve not lost hope.”
Meanwhile, Alexander said that she plans to start drawing water soon from the Choptank River to fill the hatchery’s tanks in preparation for spawning and setting operations in the spring. With whatever funding is available, she said, they intend to produce as many oysters as they can.