The Environmental Committee has been focusing on oysters this summer, from placing baby oysters out on the Severn River Reef to setting oyster spat for our oyster reef wave wall.
We also continue to support the club’s clean regatta policy to achieve the best practices of the Sailors for the Sea Clean Regatta Program with ecostations and other environmental efforts at our major regattas including the Boomerang Race in July and the upcoming CRAB Cup in August.
June 30 was an exciting day for our club, as we moved baby oysters from the cages in our marina to the reef on the Severn River. We expect that they will grow and each oyster will clean 50 gallons of water per day!
Kids from the club’s summer junior program joined members of the Environmental Committee in this activity. In fact, they started their day measuring the water quality where the oysters are growing, confirming that the water was really clean! We called the event Oyster Liberation Day or Oyster Independence Day, in association with July 4th.
This culminated the annual program which began last September when we received the shells with spat and placed them in the cages that hang from our docks. We start up again this coming September, when we get new shells with spat from Maryland Grows Oysters.
We are not the only entity participating in this project, many others are involved in building the reef, which has now been deemed to be the healthiest spot on the Severn. Ay!

In early July, twenty-five of our special concrete triangles were placed in vats containing oyster larvae at the University of Maryland Horn Point Oyster Hatchery in Cambridge, MD. The larvae attach to the concrete and become spat (see diagram of oyster life cycle).

We anticipate the spat covered triangles will be “ready” for pickup in mid-August. At that time, volunteer divers will place them on the marina’s wave wall where they will grow and both clean the water as well as attenuate the waves that enter the marina.
Club members interested in helping with EYC’s environmental efforts, please contact [email protected]. We need volunteers to help with manning our ecostations at regattas and big events, water quality monitoring, taking care of our oysters and working with kids during educational programs like the Oyster Independence day!