The Oyster Recovery Partnership launched Maryland’s first Oyster Shell Recycling Alliance on March 25 in Baltimore, together with more than 20 restaurants, catering companies and seafood wholesalers, the regional oyster shucking community and volunteers. The Alliance will focus on collecting used oyster and clam shells from restaurants and caterers in the Baltimore/Annapolis/Washington, DC metro area.
“This initiative is not only the first of its kind in Maryland, it is special because it all began with volunteers from the oyster shucking community who care deeply about our Bay,” said Stephan Abel, Executive Director of Oyster Recovery Partnership. “This community has a culture and a historical significance all their own. Their foresight and leadership made this Alliance happen.”
Oyster shell is a limited resource that needs to be recycled. Reused oyster shell provides crucial natural habitat for new oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and is used exclusively by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point hatchery for its oyster setting process.
“This is an exceptional example of stewardship, whereby Maryland citizens and businesses have come together to take personal responsibility for restoring our native oyster population and our Chesapeake Bay,” said Governor Martin O’Malley, who praised the new program. “I congratulate the Oyster Recovery Partnership and the members of the Recycling Alliance, and look forward to supporting this exciting effort to keep oyster shell out of our landfills and re-establish critical habitat for our aquatic resources.”
Local oyster shuckers, watermen and Oyster Recovery Partnership staff are conducting ongoing pickups delivered to three dumpsters in the region. The shell are then transported via Oyster Recovery Partnership vehicles and deposited to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Horn Point Lab Hatchery in Cambridge, MD for aging. About one year after collection, the hatchery attaches small oysters (“spat”) to the shells and they are replanted into the Bay on strategically-designated areas by the Oyster Recovery Partnership in cooperation with our many partners including the UMCES, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Army Corp of Engineers, University of Maryland, Maryland Watermen Association and Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Over the last 18 months, the pilot program collected more than 3,000 bushels or 1.5 million shells from local catering companies and on-call pickups. The successful pilot immediately attracted 20 high-profile restaurants and caterers who are now official Alliance partners. The goal is to expand the collection points across Maryland and Washington, DC. It is estimated that approximately 15 million new oysters planted be planted back into the Chesapeake Bay as a result of this initiative thus far.
“We believe we can collect about 5,000 bushels in our first Alliance year, enough shell to provide substrate for 25 million spat on shell,” said Vernon Johnson, a nationally-recognized oyster shucking competitor and Alliance volunteer. “Whether it’s one oyster or one million, every oyster shell makes a difference.”
The Alliance’s 2010 Season is sponsored by a generous donation by Maryland citizen Doug Legum and matching gran