Draft management strategies available for public feedback

The above comments are right on point. Many years ago, I attended my first CB meeting. At that meeting, a gentleman from US EPA put up a graphic showing how "dead" the Bay had become over the past couple decades. Then he explained that during that same time, there were enough oysters in the Bay to recycle the water in the Bay every so many weeks. Now, there are so few oysters there, that the water doesn't have a chance to get that same cleansing/recycling in a full year. Hence the demise of the Bay. Right away, I thought, maybe we should also work at the oyster population as well.

I mirror the comments above. It is apparent to me the basic foundation of the Chesapeake Bay is the oyster and oyster reef system. It creates habitat, fosters life, improves the water quality. With out this foundation we continually see the slide of the other species in the bay. If we want to take the restoration of our public resource seriously, we need to manage oysters to improve reef quality and quantity, assure 3D structure, and assure sustainability. We need to stop measuring success by harvest, and understand we have a sustainable alternative to harvesting wild oysters.

With the estimated numbers of wild oysters at
1% of historic levels nothing short of a complete
ban on harvesting should be considered. With the growth of
aquaculture in Mayland and surrounding states the supply of
oysters to the consumer will only increase as wild supplies halt.
A common complaint voiced by watermen is the low income
generated due to poor catch and high operating costs says to me
you have an experienced contractor work force available at low cost.

We simply MUST protect and grow our wild oyster reefs. The Chesapeake ecosystem depends on it. In 2014 we heard many groups including the Department of Natural Resources thumping their chests about increasing wild oyster harvests. It's past time we made it about how many we can save, not how many we can take.