House Bill Provision Would Open Some Restored Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reefs to Harvesting

WASHINGTON DC – Language added to a U.S. House spending bill would open future federally supported oyster restoration projects around the Chesapeake Bay to commercial harvesting.

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland’s lone Republican member of Congress, inserted the provision into a bill funding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The House Appropriations Committee passed the bill 32-28 in May, and it is expected to reach the full House in the coming weeks.

The measure would block funds in the bill from going toward new Bay oyster reefs unless those reefs are opened to commercial watermen three years after construction. Harris argues the change would benefit both the seafood industry and the environment, echoing watermen’s contention that dredging helps revitalize reefs.

The provision faces an uncertain path in the Senate, where a similar measure was removed from last year’s funding package before it became law. Still, it reflects a broader push in Washington, Annapolis and Richmond to ease or eliminate protections on restored reefs as the Bay’s oyster population rebounds.

That rebound stems in part from a 2014 regional agreement that set goals for restoring the Bay and its watershed, including a target for Maryland and Virginia to restore oyster populations in 10 tributaries by 2025. Officials surpassed that goal, completing work in 11 waterways, and the two states have since committed to conserving or restoring another 2,000 acres of oyster habitat.

Environmental advocates, including Ford, credit much of that success to keeping restoration sites off-limits to harvesting. They point to research backing that approach, including a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science study published in January that found dredging oyster beds likely causes shell loss beyond what watermen physically remove.

The provision’s practical impact may be limited by which agency it targets. It would carry far more weight if applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which covers most of the federal cost of Bay oyster restoration. NOAA’s role, by comparison, is narrower — funding hatchery production, helping identify new restoration sites and monitoring the condition of completed reefs.

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