More than three in four Maryland voters want to keep the state’s oyster sanctuaries protected from harvesting, according to new polling released this week by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, even as lawmakers in Annapolis and Washington have moved this year to open some protected reefs to watermen.
The bipartisan survey, conducted jointly by Republican firm New Bridge Strategy and Democratic firm FM3 between July 1 and July 9, found 78% of the 586 Maryland voters polled support maintaining existing oyster sanctuaries, with just 8% opposed. Support crossed party lines, with 82% of independents, 81% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans backing the sanctuaries, and majority support of 75% or higher in every region of the state, including an oversample of Eastern Shore voters. Support rose to 83% after respondents heard arguments on both sides of the issue, and pollsters found four in five voters would view a state legislative candidate more favorably for supporting the sanctuaries.
“Maryland voters support oyster sanctuaries because they understand what they can do for the Bay and its communities,” CBF Maryland Executive Director Allison Colden said in a statement accompanying the poll. Pollsters from both firms echoed that framing: New Bridge’s Lori Weigel said voters “clearly do not want to see” sanctuaries opened, while FM3’s Miranda Everitt called support “overwhelming across all parties, ages, and geographies.”
Oyster sanctuaries are areas of the Chesapeake Bay where harvesting is prohibited so oyster reefs can mature, filter water and provide habitat for fish and crabs. Maryland has expanded its sanctuary network significantly since 2010, and the state’s oyster population has roughly tripled since 2005 as a result, according to state and CBF data — a rebound that has also coincided with harvest levels outside the sanctuaries climbing more than 300% since the network’s establishment, as sanctuary-grown oysters spawn into nearby harvestable waters.
That success has not eliminated economic pressure on the state’s watermen, however, and that pressure sits behind this year’s push to reconsider sanctuary rules. Maryland’s oyster fishery has faced falling prices, competition from out-of-state suppliers, poaching and a difficult winter weather season, prompting the state’s Statewide Oyster Industry Committee — which includes representatives from 11 county watermen’s associations — to keep bushel limits unchanged for the coming season rather than risk further flooding the market. Against that backdrop, lawmakers introduced House Bill 1388 this session to establish a “rotational harvest pilot program,” which would have the Department of Natural Resources study and potentially open portions of certain sanctuaries to harvest under monitored conditions before closing them again. Unlike CBF’s framing of the bill as an “attempt” to open sanctuaries, legislative records show HB1388 was ultimately enacted this session, though in the more limited pilot-program form rather than a blanket sanctuary opening.
At the federal level, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland’s lone Republican member of Congress, inserted a provision into the House’s fiscal 2027 NOAA appropriations bill that would block federal funds from supporting new oyster reef construction in the bay unless those reefs are opened to commercial harvest three years after creation. The House Appropriations Committee advanced the underlying bill in May on a 32-28 vote, though a similar provision was stripped from the previous year’s funding package before it became law, and the current measure is expected to face resistance if it reaches the Senate. Harris and other proponents of loosened harvest rules argue that dredging can help revitalize aging reefs and that watermen deserve greater access to a resource that has substantially recovered.
The debate carries particular weight in Southern Maryland, where the Patuxent and Potomac rivers have long supported both watermen and, more recently, a growing oyster aquaculture industry. The St. Mary’s River ranks among Maryland’s highest oyster-producing tributaries, and operations such as Hollywood Oyster Company in St. Mary’s County and various Patuxent River aquaculture farms near Solomons have built on the region’s watermen heritage, documented locally through the Southern Maryland Oyster Trail and exhibits at the Calvert Marine Museum’s J.C. Lore Oyster House, a former packing plant that once employed roughly 65 people at the height of the Patuxent’s oyster trade in the early 20th century.
Maryland’s Oyster Advisory Commission, which includes CBF and other stakeholders, has separately been directed by legislative leaders to study options for changing sanctuary management, including possible harvest access in “underinvested” sanctuaries — a process that could shape future legislation regardless of this year’s outcome. CBF has said it will continue pushing for alternatives that support watermen without opening protected reefs, including increased investment in sanctuary restoration and the seafood industry more broadly.
