News From the Chesapeake Bay Foundation

CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER

Spring is around the corner, the daffodils are starting to bloom and our gardens will soon need tending-both of our gardens on land and water! As the waters begin to warm, you will start to see everything begin “waking up.” Fish, crabs, shrimp and eels will begin moving back into your cages! We are about three months away from our oyster gardening season so please start planning ahead for which event you will return your one-year-old oysters. I’m warning you now, if you don’t sign up-you’ll hear from us! J We want EVERYONE there this year!!  We are launching three new locations: Smithfield Station in Smithfield, Queens Lake Marina in Williamsburg and Dahlgren Yacht Club at Dahlgren Naval Base. You must register in advance for the event at Dahlgren since it is on a military base.

Last year we had a goal of 300 gardeners throughout the state and we hit 323! Our goal this year…350!! We can do it, so bring your neighbors, friends, and family! Registration is LIVE on our website, click here to register NOW.

2018 Oyster Gardening Seminar and Round-up Workshops

The suggested donation for a new set of oysters will remain the same at $25.You will be able to pay ahead online or pay the day of the event. Please reuse your cages year after year, however should you need new ones you will have a chance to reserve them when you register at no additional cost. But, please reuse, reuse, reuse! 

Featured Gardeners: Brian & Mike Daniel, Billups Creek, Mathews

The Daniel brothers have spent a good portion of their lives around the Bay: living 13 years in Virginia Beach and Annapolis, MD, and spending many summer weeks of their childhood with their grandparents in Mathews County, fishing and crabbing on the Piankatank River. In fact, their parents retired to Mathews in 2000, and Brian has been stationed in Norfolk since 1995.

In 2012, Brian began volunteering for CBF and helped the oyster restoration team plant 250 reef balls in his “home river,” the Lafayette. This event made him aware of the incredible, natural filtering powers of the oyster, and he has since been involved with every stage of the oyster restoration process, including building reef balls, washing and bagging recycled oyster shells, working the CBF booth at various community events, and gardening oysters. He would never have dared to eat an oyster until Mike introduced him to grilled oysters during a cross-country RV trip in 2014.

He and Mike have raised oysters from their parents' dock in Mathews for the past 4 years and have helped at oyster roundup events in Deltaville and Norfolk for the past 2 years. They enjoy watching their oysters grow and observing the diverse sea life that thrive amongst them: shrimp, crabs, various small fish, and even the sea squirts. They have also noted an increased amount of natural oysters that have begun to strike on pilings and along the shoreline.

Mike enjoys sailing, and Brian has logged over 500 hours boating/fishing/crabbing/tubing/cruising on the Bay and many of its tributaries, from the Southern branch of the Elizabeth River up to Urbanna on the Rappahannock. Because of their recreational attachment to the Bay, they will certainly continue their contributions to improving its water quality.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR CLEAN WATER!! 
 -The Virginia Oyster Crew (Heather North, Jackie Shannon & Kelly Davis)