SOAR program purchases oysters from local Chesapeake Bay growers for reef restoration in St. Mary’s River and Eastern Bay

The Maryland and DC chapter of The Nature Conservancy announced today that it had completed two new oyster deployments in the Chesapeake Bay as part of its ongoing SOAR program. The Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration (SOAR) program purchases living oysters from local growers to use for oyster reef restoration and replenishment. This year, the SOAR program purchased and deployed an estimated 91,000 oysters from six growers at two different sites for a total to date of nearly 1.5 million oysters replanted in the Bay.

“The SOAR program is a win-win for the Chesapeake Bay,” said Amy Jacobs, Chesapeake Bay Program Director at TNC. “It provides a great opportunity to support both local oyster growers and the wild oyster sanctuaries - both of which are key to helping restore oyster populations in the bay and the natural benefits they provide, such as cleaner water and habitat for fish and crabs.”

The SOAR program was created by TNC and The Pew Charitable Trusts in late 2020 during the COVID pandemic, when oyster growers around the country were left with excess stock due to declining demand from restaurants. Nearly 1/3 of the SOAR program’s initial funding was dedicated to supporting growers and sanctuaries in the Chesapeake Bay, where purchased oysters were planted on sanctuary reefs in Eastern Bay, the Nanticoke River and the St. Mary’s River starting January 2021.

This year, the Maryland SOAR program purchased market size diploid oyster ready to spawn to help immediately increase oyster populations and reproduction rates on sanctuary reefs. The program also purchased clustered oysters to help provide additional reef structure and habitat benefits. 

Locations for this year’s plantings were identified in collaboration with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) Aquaculture and Shellfish Divisions, which also confirmed that participating oyster growers were operating in similar environments to planting sites. SOAR contracted with the Oyster Recovery Partnership to facilitate oyster drop off and deployment at Eastern Bay and with Shore Thing Shellfish at St. Mary’s, with additional support from the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association.

These are the final Chesapeake Bay purchases and plantings supported through federal funding secured in 2022 with help from former Maryland Senator Ben Cardin and current Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. Additional funding support was provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s National Coastal Resilience Fund. The remaining funding will go to support continued reef monitoring through 2026.

Oysters have always played a critical role in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. In addition to filtering the water, reefs created by oysters provide vital habitat for a variety of bay species, including striped bass and blue crabs. As only 1-2% of the historic Chesapeake Bay native oyster population remains, however, restoring them could provide massive benefits to the Bay’s ecological health.

The national SOAR program has purchased and planted an estimated 5.6 million oysters to date on reefs across eight different states, including Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, California and Washington State. The program also created the Shellfish Growers Resiliency Fund, which provided grants to oyster growers in support of aquaculture innovations.

“It has been a privilege to create a mechanism to help the growers contribute to such important restoration work,” said Boze Hancock, Senior Marine Restoration Scientist for TNC. “The growers SOAR has worked with have been enthusiastic supporters of restoring oyster reefs and improving conditions in Chesapeake Bay. Huge thanks are owed to the many partners who have made the work possible, including funders NOAA, NFWF and The Builders Initiative.”