Southern Maryland Oyster Festival

Seems like it was only a week ago we were reporting on our outreach activities at the Maryland Crab Festival (though really it was, like, half a year ago and that is posted here). But it wouldn't be Southern Maryland if there wasn't some festival or another every single weekend.  We have wine fests, boat fests, art fests, you name it. So inevitably an event came around that fit our interests as Fisheries scientists.  It would have been very easy to miss us, tucked away in the relative "boondocks" of the fairgrounds but we represented Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and our AFS Student Subunit proudly at the Maryland Oyster Festival in Leonardtown, MD, this last weekend October 17-18.

Despite the cold, we had a approximately 4,000 people visit our little booth!  In fact there were visitors from all over the country (mostly to participate in or watch the National Oyster Shucking Competition), but we were able to tempt over a few scientifically-inclined souls to marvel at our oyster demonstration and interactive watershed model.

Awwwww yeah.  Watershed model.

Oysters serve an important economic and ecological role in the Chesapeake.  We demonstrated the latter with a tank filled with juvenile oysters, growing on old discarded shells.  Throughout the day, the algae we provided which initially clouded the tank was consumed by these oysters, clearing out the water above.  In the environment, the same thing happens- Oysters help keep down harmful out-of-control "blooms," and make sure light can penetrate the water to plants and microbes below.

Nope, not an interested child.  Just our president, Brian Gallagher. But look at how comparatively clear that water is.

However, Oysters are also delicious. We've been harvesting them from the bay since the area was initially settled. This has been so thorough that today the biomass (total kg of oysters) is only 1% of what it was before we started fishing them. We were glad to talk about this and other local environmental issues to the thousands who stopped by our booth.

This event is hosted and sponsored by The Rotary Club of Lexington Park and this was the 50th anniversary. See below for some pictures of the booth and our members interacting with the public.