Eastern oyster Archives - Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Jersey Shore oyster farmers count their losses from icy NJ winter

March 19, 2026 — Few people are looking forward to spring more than Dale Parsons, a fifth-generation bayman and oyster farmer from Tuckerton.

Parsons is trying to put his oyster farm back together after what was probably the most disastrous winter he’s endured as a grower of the salty bivalves. He said it will likely take a few years for him to be whole again, barring no bad weather setbacks again.

“Every form of damage you can think of, we suffered,” the 59-year-old Tuckerton resident told the Asbury Park Press. “If you have consecutive years with winters like this, it’ll put people out of business.”

Parsons said he lost one-third of his oysters, or roughly 300,000 out of 1 million, when the Barnegat Bay froze over this winter, trapping his leases in freezing water. At a wholesale price of 50 to 70 cents per oyster, he estimates he lost $165,000 worth of oysters.

Read the full article at Asbury Park Press

MARYLAND: Maryland sees near-record oyster reproduction in 2025, officials say

March 10, 2026 — Maryland officials are celebrating what they call one of the strongest years for oyster reproduction in decades, with new data showing a dramatic spike in juvenile oysters across Maryland waters.

Gov. Wes Moore announced Monday that the concentration of new oysters in 2025 was nearly six times higher than the long-term average and ranks as the second-highest level recorded in the 41-year modern history of the state’s annual fall oyster survey.

Reproduction Near 30-Year High

According to preliminary findings from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), scientists recorded an average of 250 spat — juvenile oysters — per bushel at key monitoring sites. That figure is more than three times higher than the strong reproduction seen in 2023 and far above the long-term average of 42.2 spat per bushel. It marks the highest reproductive success since 1997.

Read the full article at Fox Baltimore

After a Brutal Winter, Worse News for Oyster Farmers

March 9, 2026 — Peter Stein stood on a dock on Peconic Bay and stared at the wreckage. After weeks of being seized in ice off the East End of Long Island, hundreds of his oyster cages were now broken and scattered all over the bay.

A month earlier, the cages were full of oysters that can cost more than $4 apiece at Manhattan restaurants like Balthazar, Gramercy Tavern and Oceana.

But Mr. Stein said that most of his floating farm system — more than 2,000 cages, each holding up to 250 oysters — had been ripped apart by ice that was “by far the worst” he’d seen since he founded Peeko Oysters a decade ago.

The thaw from one of the harshest cold snaps in memory strewed Mr. Stein’s cultivation gear far and wide. Parts of cages, lines and floats were left drifting around the bay, stranded on shorelines and even tangled around the propeller shaft of a Shelter Island ferry.

Read the full article at The New York Times

New England reefs: Their world is the oyster

March 5, 2026 — Horseradish, cocktail sauce, or straight up? However you take your oyster, their near extinction may be difficult to swallow.

A little over 100 years ago, U.S. fishermen landed roughly 1.5 billion pounds of the craggy bivalve per year, compared to just 29.7 million pounds in 2022.

Oysters’ disappearance means more than just an increase in the price of your happy hour. Without them, water quality dips, sea grass beds recede, and salt marshes erode.

For these reasons and more, The Nature Conservancy is hoping to bring back critical oyster reefs in Massachusetts, beginning with restoration projects in Westport, Fairhaven, Mashpee, and Bourne. If successful, the wild oyster colonies will improve water quality in New England’s estuaries and help form the foundation for more erosion- and flood-resistant “living shorelines.”

But first, residents will have to resist eating them.

In 2025, The Nature Conservancy partnered with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Cape Cod Conservation District to develop a program to restore the region’s coastal habitat, including its historic oyster reefs.

The Nature Conservancy identified several communities on the Cape and the South Coast best primed for oyster restoration with the goal of rebuilding 10% to 20% of the shellfish’s original habitat.

Now, Nature Conservancy Coastal Project Manager Dan Goulart travels town to town hoping to convince residents that oysters are worth keeping around — and not just on the half-shell. In January, Goulart led a talk for members of the Westport River Watershed Alliance, ahead of his presentation to the Westport Select Board this spring.

In his talk, Goulart connected the healthy oyster population to historic pastimes like bay scallop fishing, which depend on a healthy eel grass system supported by oysters.

“To me, engaging in this restoration, bringing these oysters back … that is like preserving our historic heritage and who we are as New Englanders,” Goulart said.

Read the full article at the The New Bedford Light

MARYLAND: Maryland requests disaster declaration for Chesapeake oyster fishery

March 2, 2026 — Maryland requested a federal disaster declaration for the Chesapeake Bay oyster fishery Friday, after a perfect storm of bad weather and headline-grabbing environmental incidents depressed the market.

It’s not that there aren’t enough oysters, state officials say, but that the falling prices are hammering the industry.

In December, the Centers for Disease Control linked a multistate salmonella outbreak to eating raw oysters. Then, January brought a massive snowstorm and a prolonged cold snap, freezing the Chesapeake and keeping watermen off their boats.

That same month, a massive sewage pipe collapsed on the Potomac River, spilling millions of gallons of sewage — and damaging the perception of oysters further, even though testing has shown bacteria within safe levels at a state oyster harvesting area.

Read the full article at Maryland Matters

MARYLAND: Md. officials seek disaster declaration for oyster fishery

February 17, 2026 — Maryland officials are asking for federal help after what they describe as one of the worst oyster seasons in state history, a collapse they say threatens both watermen and a cornerstone of the Chesapeake Bay economy.

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., last week asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare an economic fishery disaster under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Such a designation can unlock emergency federal assistance for fisheries.

Read the full article at The Columbian

Louisiana wildlife agents use drone to spot illegal oyster harvesting

February 12, 2026 — Agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries used an aerial drone to spot an individual illegally harvesting hundreds of pounds of oysters in February.

While on an early morning patrol of the Sister Lake Oyster Seed Reservation 3 February, agents decided to fly an aerial drone overhead to observe an individual harvesting oysters from a vessel. Oyster season in the area had already been closed for more than a month.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Maryland congressman asks for fishery disaster funds for state oystermen

February 11, 2026 — U.S. Representative Andy Harris (R-Maryland) has asked NOAA Fisheries to declare a fishery disaster for the state’s commercial oyster fishery, which has been hard hit by cold weather and ice.

“Severe weather this year, combined with shrinking market access and increased competition, left many crews effectively tied to the dock, with watermen able to fish for just one or two days all season,” Harris said in a statement. “These pressures threaten both livelihoods and a major sector of the Eastern Shore economy. For that reason, I am urging NOAA to approve a federal disaster declaration because immediate disaster relief is necessary to help watermen recover from the financial losses caused by this season.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHUSETTS: Oyster growers say sewage-related closures threaten their business

January 23, 2025 — 2024 was supposed to be Mattapoisett oyster farmer Mike Ward’s biggest year yet. He planned to scale up production on his four-acre Nasketucket Bay farm, ahead of selling it and retiring in 2026.

But Ward’s farm, Mattapoisett Oysters, suffered 180-plus days of state-imposed emergency closures last year, after rains caused raw sewage to repeatedly spill from New Bedford’s combined sewer system into Buzzards Bay. Now, his plans to sell are on hold.

“I think it’s worth zero right now, except for my equipment,” Ward said.

Ward wasn’t the only local oyster farmer whose plans were disrupted by New Bedford’s combined sewer overflows last year.

West Island Oysters co-owner Dale Leavitt was looking to boost production on his 46-acre Nasketucket Bay farm. Now, his Fairhaven business is “running on fumes” after experiencing 180-plus days of emergency closures.

In Dartmouth, Scott Soares was looking to grow his half-acre Padanaram Oyster Farm in Apponagansett Bay. Roughly half of his farm income was wiped out by 212 days of emergency closures.

Since January 2024, emergency shellfish bed closures have presented an urgent threat to oyster aquaculture in Buzzards Bay.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: Oyster farmers find northernmost blue angelfish ever reported off the coast of Cape Cod, org says

October 2, 2024 — Cape Cod husband and wife oyster farmers were flipping bags on their oyster grant in Little Pleasant Bay in Orleans last week when a colorful little fish caught their eye.

When Tim Silva was working on flipping the 5,000 floating bags of oysters on Wednesday to help clear them of debris and establish the oyster shapes, he noticed a blue.

“Not a normal blue,” Silva said. “It was moving, and it was fish that was not supposed to be there.”

The fish, which would later be identified as a blue angelfish, gravitated towards Danielle Orcutt, his wife’s hands, presumably to keep warm. Since colder waters were approaching, Silva and Orcutt knew they needed to find a place where the fish could survive. So, they called Wild Care, a wildlife rescue nonprofit on the Cape.

Read the full article at Boston.com