Not far from the waterfront palaces bordering this picturesque Eastern Shore town, a barge-mounted crane is busily building new homes — in the water. Tons of broken clam shells and granite are going into the Tred Avon River to give a new start to millions of oysters.
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. Officials are using less granite and suspending the use of fossilized oyster shell from Florida, both of which waterman complained about.
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.”
“We’re looking for some more changes, but the attitude has already changed,” said Robert T. Brown Sr., president of the Maryland Watermen’s Association. “They are sitting down and negotiating with us some.”