Amid Oyster Bounty, Chesapeake Bay Watermen Suffer Dismal Harvest - The BayNet

Amid Oyster Bounty, Chesapeake Bay Watermen Suffer Dismal Harvest - The BayNet

Chumley Fisher offloads oysters from Chet Schwartz’s boat on March 18, 2026, on Tilghman Island, MD.  Dave Harp It’s the best of times in recent memory for Chesapeake Bay oysters. It’s just the opposite, though, for the Maryland and Virginia watermen who make a living harvesting them. The Bay’s oysters have recovered from the MSX and Dermo diseases that decimated the population a little more than two decades ago. Recent reef surveys found them m…