Watermen, DNR Rebuff Call For Oyster Moratorium

The Chesapeake Bay's oyster population has plummeted since the late 1960s, when Willy Dean, a Maryland waterman since age 17, would go hand tonging with his father and "load the boat with oysters."

"The catch is way, way down from what it was back then," Dean said.

The population is so low that scientists recommended a complete halt to oyster harvesting in a study published in August by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, or UMCES.

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