Today, the Great Baltimore Oyster Partnership, made up of Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore (WPB) and Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), hosted 35 volunteers to install Maryland’s largest public oyster garden at Lighthouse Point Marina, in partnership with marina managers Oasis Experiences. This celebration marked the 12th oyster planting season for the Great Baltimore Oyster Partnership.
“Oysters are important to Baltimore Harbor because they clearly work at cleaning the water,” said Aaron Tsu, a volunteer oyster gardener. “I like oyster gardening for the sense of community and to spread awareness to help clean the Bay.”
Volunteer oyster gardeners play a crucial role in the Partnership and Baltimore’s oyster restoration efforts. At the event, volunteers filled wire cages with baby oysters, called spat, which CBF had set on hundreds of recycled oyster shells. The cages were then hung over the marina docks where they will stay and grow for the next nine months. This process keeps the oysters, which are most vulnerable during their first year of life, elevated from the Harbor’s muddy bottom. Oyster gardeners will continue to check and tend to them throughout the year during monthly cage cleaning events. After nine months, the oysters are planted out on protected oyster sanctuary reefs.
Once mature, each oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, making them a vital resource for improving water quality in the Harbor and Bay. Oysters not only improve water quality, but also provide valuable habitat for wildlife and have been shown to increase species diversity by 40-60%.
The Lighthouse Point Marina site is one of several public oyster gardening locations in Baltimore where people can get involved.
“We call it oyster gardening, but it’s more like oyster fostering,” said Kellie Fiala, Maryland oyster restoration coordinator at CBF. “You don’t have to have a waterfront property to participate. Lighthouse Point Marina and other public oyster gardening locations are accessible and always need extra hands. Thanks to all the volunteers who came out this event to help get us started.”
Since 2013, the Partnership, with the help of more than 5,000 volunteers, has cultivated more than 1.6 million oysters in Baltimore Harbor. In July 2019, the Partnership met its initial goal of planting out five million oysters.
“These Inner Harbor oyster gardens become home to much more than just oysters,” said Adam Lindquist, vice president of WPB. “Thousands of eels, shrimp, small fish, and crabs have been thriving alongside the spat. This increase in smaller creatures has helped bring larger predators like rockfish and even river otters back to Baltimore.”
Lighthouse Point Marina on the Canton Waterfront was an early supporter of the Partnership, hosting roughly 60 public oyster cages for years. They recently underwent a major renovation and are now expanding oyster gardening operations to reignite the connections they had with the community.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Waterfront Partnership to bring the largest oyster garden in the state to Lighthouse Point Marina,” said Joel Schlossberg, general manager of Lighthouse Point Marina. “The oyster garden installation is part of our ongoing commitment to creating a healthier Baltimore Harbor and Chesapeake Bay. The tens of thousands of oysters that will be raised at Lighthouse Point will contribute to the improving health of our waterway for years to come.”
The Great Baltimore Oyster Partnership receives partial funding from the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance (COA). COA and its partnership of nonprofits, oyster farmers, and community organizations are committed to adding 10 billion oysters to the Bay by 2025.
