Day 5: Legislative Day!

Although our group had worked on oyster restoration efforts throughout much of the week, we had yet to see the policy side of the debate. For some context, the Maryland General Assembly (MGA) Senate bill in question was HB924 - which would guarantee that oyster sanctuaries would remain protected until 2018, when a stock assessment (total count) of the oyster population was completed. The major stakeholders involved were environmental conservationists, including scientists from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), and the local oyster industry, more commonly referred to as the Watermen. Prior to this legislative day, we had heard arguments from CBF in support of passing the sanctuary bill, but we had not yet heard from the Watermen -- so we were quite eager and intrigued to hear what their argument would be!

We started the day early by passing out informational gift bags to all 47 Senators about HB924, which was awesome! Many of us dawned our "We Heart Oyster Sanctuaries" shirts and took the Senate Building by storm! (ok, so maybe not a literal storming...but it was still exciting to walk into Senators offices) From there, we dashed over to a press conference commenting on the recent federal budget cuts to NOAA and Chesapeake Bay restoration programs. Several of us with our Oyster Shirts had our pictures taken, and several prominent state Senators called out Governor Hogan on not only being absent for the press conference, but also for not yet commenting on the Chesapeake Bay budget cuts. After the press conference, some of us split up and explored Annapolis, while a group of us sat in on a House Floor Session, listening to delegates vote on an assortment of bills. Afterward, it was time for the Senate Committee hearing on HB924!

After a 90-minute delay (typical bureaucracy), we took our seats in the hearing. "Favorables" or proponents of preserving the sanctuaries spoke first, emphasizing the science and encouraging the common-sense practice of waiting to harvest the sanctuaries until the 2018 Stock Assessment was completed. Initial impressions were not encouraging -- several of the Senators were extremely confused and the scientists often rambled on certain points, not providing a concise, persuasive answer. When the "unfavorables" took the stand for testimony, they argued that the legislation would deter collaboration & consensus building among the Oyster Advisory Committee (OAC), a smaller community group formed among Watermen, scientists, and legislators. Although somewhat convincing, their argument quickly devolved when the Vice Chair of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, Senator Paul Pinsky frankly stated: "this bill clarifies the directive of this legislature, and without it, you and the executive branch [Hogan] are pushing aside the heart and will of this legislature. Your directives seem like an anti-science approach, and we believe that science guides us, not anecdotal evidence."

The statement was a bombshell, and swiftly shifted the tide in favor of CBF and favorables of the bill. Subsequent testimony from Watermen again focused on the diverse and collaborative efforts that would be undercut from passage of the bill, but there was even disagreement among the unfavorables whether this was even true. Attempts to provide pseudo-science were also introduced, but by the end of the second hour, it was fairly clear that the bill was likely to pass favorably from the committee.

Upon further reflection, it was disheartening to realize that these Watermen were unlikely to maintain a healthy standard of living for much longer, and/or be forced into a different profession, losing a cultural watermark that had been a part of families for dozens of generations. It isn't fair, especially when realizing that much of the problem was due to rampant disease to the Oyster population in the '70s and '80s, in addition to the lack of oversight and management for harvesting/fisheries licenses by the state's Department of Natural Resources. Without management, a simple tragedy of the commons unfolds, as the oysters are a public good and deplete over time as unlimited consumption increases. To be fair, the Watermen are also conducting their own harvesting strategies that may be more detrimental to the Oyster population, i.e, dredging/scraping entire locations and unintentionally spreading diseases, but it must also be noted that many of these Watermen were not afforded the luxuries of an education, access to high-quality science, or time to wait. Their livelihoods and very way of existence are being threatened, and when outsiders/scientists declare their practices ineffective and force their hand, it's hard not to sympathize with them. Would you turn on your family's entire professional and cultural history and choose a different career?