State to step up poaching fight

Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009

Maryland Natural Resource Police have vowed to increase enforcement and use new technology to catch poachers in the act as part of a new state proposal to restore the Chesapeake Bay's oyster population.

Part of that enforcement could involve cooperating with the Navy to use some of its established radar systems in the Chesapeake Bay to monitor boat traffic, said Tim Bowman, executive assistant to the superintendent of MdNRP.

Earlier this month Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced a proposal to increase the number of sanctuaries for oysters and promote aquaculture techniques as an alternative to watermen's traditional harvest practices.

Eric Schwaab, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said the announcement earlier this month was "driven by the pretty unfortunate state of oysters" in the bay.

Oyster sanctuaries are protected areas for the propagation of shellfish and do not allow any harvest of oysters within the marked boundaries. The amount of habitat devoted to sanctuaries would increase from 9 percent to 24 percent of the best remaining oyster beds.

Proposed sanctuary areas include the upper St. Mary's River, an area off Point Lookout and the upper Patuxent River .

But enforcement of fishery laws has always been an issue with so many hundreds of thousands of acres of bay water to patrol with a limited number of officers. With 247 sworn officers, DNR has 33 fewer men and women to enforce the law than it did last year because of budget cuts.

"We're in an era where the state budget is very tight," said Sgt. Art Windemuth, spokesperson for MdNRP.

Bowman said he is in talks with Navy officials to tie in to radar systems used by Patuxent River Naval Air Station when dropping ordnance into the bay and to monitor air space. He is also hoping for help from a Navy research lab near Chesapeake Beach in Calvert County that tests radar equipment.

"They both have radar operating that covers the bay and we want to see if that information can be sent to us," he said. "They're interested in sharing that radar with us."

The radar could offer remote monitoring capabilities to track boats in some sanctuary areas.

Information would be fed to a central communications office where officers could see when a boat was behaving in a manner consistent with dredging or tonging.

"That's a system that's being developed now with [Department of] Homeland Security dollars and the governor's security cabinet," said Mike Naylor, DNR shellfish program director.

Bowman said the state hopes to use a $1 million port security grant from Homeland Security obtained in 2006.

There are also plans for the state to use microscopic wire tags inserted into the hinges of oysters to mark where they were planted. These tags could be scanned and tell a buyer or seller where the oyster originally is from.

"Obviously, with the leased portions there is a private security responsibility as well," Schwaab said.

As part of the state's proposal it would be easier for individuals or private businesses to lease portions of the bay and its tributaries for aquaculture. The proposal includes opening more than 95,500 acres of natural oyster bars to lease.

The cost to lease will be a one-time $300 application fee and a charge of $3.50 per acre each year.

In the 1980s there were some 2,000 oystermen licensed in the state. Now there are about 500, with only about half of those actively harvesting oysters, according to DNR.

Many of the watermen are from the Eastern Shore, although there are about 100 licensed oyster harvesters from Southern Maryland.

jyeatman@somdnews.com