A "Save the Bay" Conflict - Aquaculture Flotsam

There exist many initiatives underway and very visible to homeowners like ourselves in the Chesapeake Bay/PAX River area, but sometimes the intent undos the good. "Aquaculture" interests nearby, for example, are a great mechanism for helping nudge the oyster population back up while providing very critical Bay filtering benefits....on the other hand, managing a fleet of "floating oyster beds" for public and environmental good should include avoiding negative impacts of beds-on-the-loose, as shown in the pictures below....over the course of a year, beds, baskets and other flotsam regularly washed up on our shores, wreaking some havoc with the local marsh areas...





(Little red arrows indicate where an Oyster bed-bag (hard vinyl plastic) washed in and embedded in the mud)







Here we've retrieved and piled up over 10 Oyster beds (in 2 piles) that washed up; the owner "unable to retrieve them" for many months.