Oyster laws are getting stricter, the government is setting up sanctuaries and limiting the kinds of equipment watermen can use. The Natural Resources Police are out at night enforcing them, and caught in the pincers are watermen who are just trying to make a living.
If Omega Protein wasn't sucking up all the menhaden, there would be less hypoxia, and more fish and shellfish might grow. If developers can find cheaper ways to get storm water to soak into the land instead of sending it out into the Bay, the water will be cleaner and conditions better for fish and oysters. If septic tanks on the Eastern Shore can be linked into a sewer system that will get their effluent treated, more fish will thrive. If the chicken waste produced over there can be converted to energy, biochar, or fertilizer instead of turning into eutrophic runoff, conditions will improve. But all that costs money! In the meantime, watermen struggle to pay their bills and we all pay more for our seafood, which isn't even local anymore. Is this the solution we want? Is it efficient? It's sure a complicated situation!
