NEWS BITES

O cials with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources told Maryland Matters the studies used by Seafood Watch in its draft report were awed, and no one contacted the department at any time about their methodology.

“ ere’s missing information, there’s outdated information. ey have misinterpreted information, and they have failed to live up to their own standards of using the best science and collaborating,” DNR Secretary for Aquatic Resources Kristen Fidler said.

Biologists with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science also told Maryland Matters that the Seafood Watch ratings of the shery were based on “old data and are entirely inappropriate.” Data cited regarding abundance being “a high concern” was more than a decade old, they said.

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Scientist Mike Wilberg, who helped lead the development of the state’s stock assessments, also criticized the Seafood Watch rating and told Maryland Matters it didn’t take into account the complexities of the oyster population.

“ e devil is in the details,” Wilberg said.

Virginia oysters were rated a good choice by Seafood Watch in 2018, the highest rating the organization bestows. Since that time, the oyster shery has “steadily improved,” Virginia Waterman’s Association President JC Hudgins told the media. Last year, reef surveys found the highest oyster densities since before diseases struck the species in the late 1980s.

e Chesapeake Bay Foundation Maryland Director Allison Colden, who is also a sheries biologist, also criticized the draft report’s stance considering a new update on the oyster population is coming soon.

Despite the criticism of the report and the relative increase in oyster population in the bay, NOAA Fisheries acknowledges that the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay is at a fraction of its historic population, with only 1 to 2 percent remaining in the wild compared to historic highs. NOAA has created a “blueprint” to restore oysters to the bay, and has partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Program to restore oysters to 10 tributaries to the bay by 2025.

$220 MILLION DISASTER RELIEF TO ALASKA AND WASHINGTON

e U.S. Department of Commerce has allocated USD 220 million in shery disaster relief to the U.S. states of Washington and Alaska for a shery disaster that took place from 2020 to 2023.

Wildfires Disrupt Lobster Season

Lobster season was extended due to June wild res in Nova Scotia. With many shermen and lobster pounds in areas with power outages, generators kept pounds running amid concern over fuel supplies.