Oysters Are Breathing Life Into the Chesapeake Bay

Oysters Are Breathing Life Into the Chesapeake Bay

Oysters Are Breathing Life Into the Chesapeake Bay Waterline is an ongoing series that explores the solutions making rivers, waterways and ocean food chains healthier. It is funded by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. I t would be a quiet and peaceful morning at the edge of the Choptank River in Cambridge, Maryland, if not for the forklifts racing around the pier, scraping five-foot-tall metal cages along the ground as they go. It’s early May and the sun is just beginning to burn off the mid-morning haze, but the crew has been at it since dawn. Everyone is energized despite the early start, and rightfully so, because the cages are brimming with oysters bound for a new home. This is the biggest day of reef restoration the Chesapeake Bay has ever seen.  A cage full of baby oysters bound for the Manokin River. Credit: Ben Seal A crane lifts the cages out of eight tanks submerged into the river, where millions of baby oysters — spat, as they’re known — have spent the past week searchi…