![]() ![]() Have questions about CBF's oyster gardening program? Send an e-mail to video by Gillian Ray tells the story of 15-year-old oyster gardener Jamie Attanasio. Want to become an oyster gardener? Sign our volunteer registration form. The hope is that each gardener will continue to produce a new crop of healthy adult oysters year after year. The gardener starts over with a new batch of seed.The gardener then returns the adult oysters to CBF, and our staff plant the oysters onto sanctuary (non-harvest) reefs in Maryland waters.Gardeners grow their oysters in the cages for about a year until the oysters are about one to two inches long.The gardener also receives several thousand seed oysters. To grow oysters, each participant builds a set of oyster cages from wire mesh, which will hang from the dock.Once grown, the adult oysters are returned to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for planting on sanctuary reefs. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Oyster Gardening Program gives people the opportunity to help bring back this vital species by growing oysters alongside their docks. Once they have set on a substrate, known as cultch, the larvae are then considered to be spat or juvenile oysters and will then be moved to either a nursery system or a grow-out system. Once the larvae have a foot, they will begin looking for a suitable substrate for setting. ![]() Unfortunately, though, today's oyster population is estimated at only two percent of its original level. Oyster spat after a few weeks in a grow-out system. They also provide essential habitat for fish and other Bay creatures. Oysters are the Chesapeake Bay's best natural filters. If you would like to participate in the program as a new oyster gardener, join our email list to be notified when registration opens for our fall 2023 season or complete our volunteer form.
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