The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has announced that it’s building the Truman T. Semans Center for Oyster Restoration and Innovation in Galesville, MD.
Oysters have been vital to cleaning the Chesapeake Bay. They can filter up to 12 gallons of water per day in the wild, and their reefs provide habitat for other species.
The Bay Foundation aims to grow 50 million oysters a year at the two-acre waterfront center on Tenthouse Creek, just off the West River in Anne Arundel County. The center will also be home to its 60-foot oyster restoration vessel. The oysters will grow in eight large tanks and be placed on sanctuary reefs. The foundation plans on recycling oyster shells and hosting oyster gardening programs at the site as well.
The center will have environmentally friendly features like solar panels, electric vehicle chargers and living shorelines. And, in honor of the area’s past, the foundation will feature an exhibit on Bay watermen and the oyster fishery.
The building formerly housed Woodfield’s Fish and Oyster Company, which sold about 150,000 gallons of shucked oysters annually from 1935 to 1945. Oyster canning at the company ended in the mid-1990s due to a decline in oysters and shuckers. Annapolis Produce and Seafood purchased the plant in 2002 and operated it until 2022.
The Bay Foundation is finalizing architectural plans for the center and expects it to open in 2027.
This is great news!!