April 27, 2026 — The body of a New Jersey oysterman who fell off a boat in Delaware Bay earlier this month has been recovered, according to authorities.
The Coast Guard received a Mayday call from the fishing boat the Bon Secour on April 9 about the missing oysterman, Matthew Oliver, 47, and began the first of 10 searches, covering 77 square nautical miles. Oliver was reported missing shortly after noon. The boat was near Gandy’s Beach, five miles southeast of Newport, New Jersey.
April 15, 2026 — Around New England, oysters are dying at alarming rates during the winter months.
Now, scientists in New Hampshire are trying to figure out why, as the future of the region’s youngest and smallest oyster industry hangs in the balance.
The oyster industry has grown tremendously in New Hampshire in recent years.
But as oyster farmer Joe Rankin discovered, there can be a devastating downside: mass die-offs during the cold winter that can derail the business.
That’s what he experienced in 2022, when he returned to his New Hampshire farm on the western side of Little Bay in the spring and found that about 80 percent of his oysters had died over the winter.
If he hadn’t known other oyster farmers who had overcome similar losses, he said, “I would have probably been discouraged enough to leave.”
He wants to see the industry keep growing, but even in better years, he’s seen anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent of his oysters die during the winter.
April 13, 2026 — Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Sea Grant has awarded $1.6 million to four new research projects targeting pressing challenges facing Massachusetts’ aquaculture and fisheries industries, including soft-shell clams, oysters, and black sea bass.
“Each of these projects addresses a question we’re hearing directly from those working on the water: how to keep shellfish beds open, how to manage emerging fisheries, how to improve aquaculture practices, and how to restore oyster reefs more effectively,” said WHOI Sea Grant Director Matt Charette. “This is science driven by real needs, with outcomes that will directly benefit coastal communities.”
April 8, 2026 — Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant has awarded $1.6 million to four new research projects that will investigate pressing concerns related to Massachusetts’ vital aquaculture and fisheries industries, including oysters, soft-shell clams, and black sea bass. The awards are the result of WHOI Sea Grant’s 2026 to 2027 biennial research competition.
“Each of these projects addresses a question we’re hearing directly from those working on the water: how to keep shellfish beds open, how to manage emerging fisheries, how to improve aquaculture practices, and how to restore oyster reefs more effectively,” said WHOI Sea Grant Director Matt Charette. “This is science driven by real needs, with outcomes that will directly benefit coastal communities.”
Over the next two years, these projects will generate new tools and data to support species economically and environmentally important to coastal Massachusetts. The Commonwealth-based researchers will also share this work with the people who will directly benefit from the findings. The projects reflect a coordinated effort to address several pressing challenges facing Massachusetts’ coastal waters and communities.
Read the full article at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
April 8, 2026 — A Mississippi court has struck down a private lease scheme invented by the state legislature for future oyster harvesting, deeming the program unconstitutional.
“In sum, and as discussed hereafter, the court finds that the On-Bottom Lease Laws effectively deny the plaintiffs and the public the right to harvest oysters guaranteed to them by [the Mississippi state constitution] and further that the obligations placed on the lessees by the On-Bottom Lease Laws do not promote oyster conservation and management for future generations of the public,” Chancery Court Judge Jim Persons said in a 23 March ruling.
April 7, 2026 — New York Governor Kathy Hochul has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to confirm that a disaster has hit the state’s oyster industry, enabling oystermen to access emergency loans and financial support.
Like their counterparts working in Chesapeake Bay, New York oystermen have been beset by extreme cold weather and icy conditions that have kept them from working for much of the season.
March 20, 2026 — The Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory has played a central role in supporting New Jersey’s oyster industry through decades of research, collaboration, and science-based management. Since 1953, the lab has worked closely with the Delaware Bay oyster industry and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife to address challenges affecting oyster populations and to help sustain this vital natural resource.
The partnership began when the industry sought assistance in identifying the causes of declining oyster stocks in 1953. In response, the Haskin Lab established annual population surveys of oysters in Delaware Bay. These surveys continue today and provide the scientific foundation for managing the fishery and supporting a sustainable harvest. Over time, and with external expert review that includes NJDEP scientists and active oyster harvesters, the lab has helped guide the development of a sustainable oyster fishery recognized as a leading model both regionally and nationally.
A key component of this success is the use of a “total allowable catch” approach, which differs from many shellfisheries that rely on license limits or shortened harvest seasons. This method allows for more precise, science-based management of the resource while balancing ecological sustainability and industry needs.
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.
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.
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.