Maryland Archives - Saving Seafood

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

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

MARYLAND: Maryland oyster season collapse prompts calls for federal disaster aid

February 9, 2026 — Maryland officials are asking for federal help amid 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., this week asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 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 harmed by natural or market conditions.

Eastern Shore lawmakers echoed the comments from Harris, saying a combination of factors — prolonged freezing weather, weak demand and growing competition from out-of-state oysters — devastated the winter harvest. State Sen. Johnny Mautz, R-Middle Shore, said the normal Thanksgiving-to-Christmas peak selling period largely vanished.

“That is prime time oyster sales. This year, it just did not exist,” Mautz said. “There has not been a demand to buy Maryland oysters.”

Read the full article at the Baltimore Sun

Rep. Andy Harris seeks ‘fishery disaster’ to aid Maryland watermen

February 6, 2026 — Rep. Andy Harris, R-1st-Maryland, has sent a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requesting that the agency declare an economic fishery disaster to provide immediate assistance to Maryland oystermen following this year’s devastating season. The request was made under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which authorizes federal emergency relief for fisheries affected by natural or economic disasters.

Harris sent the letter in response to outreach from members of Maryland’s Eastern Shore delegation requesting federal assistance as local watermen face mounting economic strain driven by severe weather, reduced market access, and increased competition.

“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,” said Harris. “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 Salisbury Daily Times

MARYLAND: Maryland’s offshore wind project faces legal pushback from Ocean City, Trump administration

February 6, 2026 — Attracting 8 million annual visitors to its popular beach and bustling boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland, is a cornerstone of the state’s culture and economy — but the view from the beach will change if the state government has its way.

Instead of looking out at just the sky and waves, visitors could one day see tiny toothpick-like structures — windmills, actually — on the horizon. That prospect has prompted a fierce political battle over an ambitious, 114-turbine wind energy project that aims to generate renewable power for over 700,000 homes.

Offshore wind developer US Wind leased the federal waters after winning a 2014 auction. The U.S. Department of the Interior approved the company’s construction and operations plan in December 2024, greenlighting the Momentum Wind project, which could generate over 2,000 megawatts of clean energy in addition to the MarWin turbines.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has defended the project as a key way to increase the local energy supply in a state that historically imports about 40% of its electricity.

“Maryland is serious about offshore wind — not just because of what it means for our environment but also because of what it means for our economy,” Moore said last year.

Yet while the state attempts to implement offshore wind capable of paving the way for a clean energy future, opponents on two fronts have fought to stop the project.

The founder of the Stop Offshore Wind campaign – Kevin Gibbs, owner of the Dough Roller restaurants in Ocean City– contends the presence of the windmills will hurt tourism and fishing in the region.

“You’re going to have an economic impact on families that have been here for generations,” he said.

In addition to local pushback from community members like Gibbs, President Donald Trump issued an executive order during his first month in office withdrawing leases for offshore wind projects. A federal judge overturned that order in December, but US Wind has paused design work on the project as it awaits the resolution of a separate federal court case in which Gibbs’ group and the Trump administration argue the federal permit for the project should be withdrawn.

“No law would impose civil or criminal liability on US Wind if it continued to develop the project,” U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher wrote in a recent decision in the case. “It simply has made a business decision not to do so in light of the political headwinds it perceives.”

Read the full article at Capital News Service

MARYLAND: Maryland Eyes August Rockfish Ban to Save Struggling Striped Bass

February 5, 2026 — Maryland anglers and conservationists have until Feb. 23 to weigh in on proposed changes to striped bass recreational fishing seasons that aim to bolster protection for the species during its most vulnerable periods in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is accepting public comments on a “baseline reset” that would impose a full no-targeting closure for striped bass throughout August in Maryland waters, including the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. The proposal also includes reopening limited catch-and-release fishing in April, while maintaining harvest opportunities from May through July and from September through early December, with catch-and-release only from mid-December onward.

This adjustment addresses documented challenges facing striped bass, locally known as rockfish. Maryland’s juvenile striped bass survey has shown below-average recruitment for six consecutive years, meaning fewer young fish are surviving early life stages due to factors such as habitat degradation and predation by invasive species like blue catfish. Meanwhile, mature striped bass face elevated mortality risks during summer catch-and-release due to high water temperatures, low oxygen levels, and heat stress. Maryland-specific studies indicate release mortality rates can reach 30 to 40 percent in summer conditions, far higher than the 9 percent assumed in coastwide models.

Read the full article at The Southern Maryland Chronicle

MARYLAND: Maryland oyster hatchery faces federal funding cut

January 29, 2026 — In a potentially serious blow to oyster restoration efforts in Maryland, the Trump administration has slashed federal funding that supports the operation of the state-run oyster hatchery on the Eastern Shore.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is cutting nearly in half the $740,000 grant it has provided annually for spawning and rearing oysters at the Horn Point laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).

The cut comes on the heels of the successful conclusion of a more than decade-long campaign to restore oysters in 10 Chesapeake Bay tributaries in Maryland and Virginia — an effort the state-federal Chesapeake Bay Program is now looking to expand. It also comes as Congress, in a rare show of bipartisanship, has increased rather than cut federal funding for Bay oyster restoration efforts.

The Horn Point hatchery, one of the largest on the East Coast, has played a central role in the restoration of oyster reefs in Maryland’s five tributaries. Its annual output of oyster larvae since 2020 has ranged from 400 million to nearly 2 billion.

The hatchery sells some of those larvae to private oyster farmers, but three-quarters of the newly spawned bivalves are set or attached to oyster shells and planted on the bottom of Bay tributaries targeted by the state for restoration.

Read the full article at the Bay Journal

MARYLAND: Offshore wind opponents have their say at forum

January 16, 2026 — Opponents of offshore windfarms gathered in Ocean City this week to discuss the status of the controversial project proposed by U.S. Wind and its potential impact on the Maryland-Delaware coastline.

The group Stop Offshore Wind organized the Jan. 12 forum, held at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center and hosted by Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan.

Speakers included Fenwick Island Mayor Natalie Magdeburger, City Manager Terry McGean of Ocean City and leaders of groups representing the fishing industry, national security concerns and environmental issues.

Magdeburger, a longtime opponent of offshore wind, updated attendees on the status of a lawsuit filed by Fenwick Island and Sussex County officials against the state of Delaware over passage of Senate Bill 159, which overrode the denial by Sussex County Council of a plan to bring power lines ashore at Three Rs beach in Delaware Seashore State Park and connect to a substation located at the former Indian River Power Plant in Dagsboro.

Fenwick has also taken legal action to prevent DNREC from allowing the connections, which would involve running cables under the Indian River Bay.

“It was interesting to me that the Center for the Inland Bays, who actually took money from U.S. Wind, when their scientists…were looking at these issues, they came to the conclusion that plowing through the Indian River Bay would be the ‘worst option’ possible. And yet that was the cheapest option, and that was the option that DNREC…approved.

“The legislature has created a market in Delaware,” Magdeburger said. “It basically mandated that a certain percentage of all of our energy that we purchase in Delaware needs to be purchased from renewables,” such as offshore wind.

Read the full article at Coastal Point

MARYLAND: Panel held in OC to Stop Offshore Wind

January 14, 2026 — A public hearing drew in hundreds to the Roland E. Powell Convention center on Monday night, as eight local leaders and experts spoke on a panel against the installation of offshore windmills.

The event, hosted by the StopOffshoreWind Coalition, in coordination with the Town of Ocean City (OC) and Worcester County Government, sought to push back against U.S. Wind’s longstanding proposal to construct a 114 turbine windfarm located 10.7 miles off the coast of OC. The project was approved in Oct. 2024 under the Biden Administration, but faced scrutiny under the following Trump Administration. On Sept. 12, 2025, the Department of the Interior (DOI) reversed course and filed a motion to vacate and remand the project approval. When the U.S. District Court ordered a briefing on that motion, the federal government then sought to stay the proceedings indefinitely. Maryland Attorney General (AG) Anthony G. Brown and Delaware AG Kathry Jennings have since filed briefs requesting preliminary injunctions to save the project. A ruling is expected late summer 2026.

Speakers gathered to inform residents on where the project currently stands, and how they are continuing the fight against offshore wind. OC Mayor Rick Meehan opened the event and introduced each of the panelists, who specialized in a particular field related to concerns surrounding offshore windmill installation.

“It is almost impossible to believe that over the past eight years, and after attending numerous public hearings at both the state and federal level, stating our concerns, that not one of our concerns has been addressed,” Mayor Meehan said in his opening remarks. “Our goal tonight is to bring to light some of these questions, and provide some of the missing answers for the people in this room.”

Read the full article at WMDT

MARYLAND: Offshore wind project still in limbo

January 3, 2025 — Congressman Andy Harris predicts US Wind will fail.

Regulatory uncertainty, he said, may doom the developer’s plans for an offshore wind farm near Ocean City. It means the deep-pocketed lenders required to finance the project may walk away, the Eastern Shore representative said in an interview with OC Today-Dispatch.

After the U.S. Interior Department on Dec. 22 announced a pause on all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction, citing national security concerns, Harris noted how shares of the five companies affected “took a beating on Wall Street.”

“And I think what that means for US Wind – which, of course, is not a publicly traded company, it’s owned by Italian billionaires – it means that they’re unlikely to get the financing,” he said. “At some point they’re going to pull the plug. I expect that actually to be sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled the plug by summer.”

Read the full article at OC Today-Dispatch