The spirit of Chesapeake Bay volunteerism was resoundingly demonstrated recently as the largest number of oysters ever transplanted by volunteers in one effort took place at the Horn Point Environmental Laboratory the week of July 12th. Seventy people answered an emergency call by the Oyster Recovery Partnership and made the trek to Horn Point, some leaving home before 6 AM and several who participated multiple days. A total of 520 volunteer hours were donated to the project. By the end of the week over 8 million oysters had been moved out of the shallow water nursery site and planted on a sanctuary bar in the Severn River.

Oyster hatchery operations depend very heavily on volunteer labor, and many individuals and groups have helped in recent years. To produce "seed" oysters for restoration or fishery projects, oyster larvae are "set" on oyster shell that has been contained in mesh bags and piled into large tanks of Bay water by volunteers. Tens of thousands of bags are processed annually. After the larvae have set (attached to the shell), the bags have to be removed from the tanks and piled in a shallow water "nursery" area for 3 to 4 weeks. In the final step, the bags are retrieved from the nursery and the oysters are planted on the bottom.

It was this last step that had to be done quickly with a lot of oysters the week of July 12th. Due to a permit problem, the spreading of shell at the Severn River site was delayed three weeks. The delay meant that the seed had to sit in the nursery longer than expected, and, as feared, this was enough time for Stylocus, the oyster predators also called flatworms, to infest the shellbag piles and start to ravage the seed oysters. As soon as the site was shelled, the call went out for volunteers to help save the seed from the dreaded flatworm.

For more information contact the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.