Page 32 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch August 23, 2013 # OCEAN CITY ELKS LODGE th Street Bayside welcomes everyone for Oyster Recovery Effort Explained By JOANNE SHRINER STAFF WRITER # ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT ✹✗✑✎q❊✎v✔ ✹w❊❊✑✔ Sunday, Aug. 25, 8 a.m.-Noon (CHILDREN 6 AND UNDER $4.00) ✑s ✑❜¤✺❋9,✏4q p.m. ✽✗ 2 -7 y, Aug. Thursda -O CARRY UT # # OCEAN CITY ELKS LODGE th Street Bayside 13708 SINEPUXENT AVE ONLY $8.00 A PERSON Includes: Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Scrapple, Home Fries, Waffles, Creamed Chipped Beef & Biscuits, Danish, Fruit, Coffee & Juice ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 4-Piece Fried Chicken Dinner With Two Sides.... $8.00 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 16 Piece Bucket Of Chicken With Two Large Sides.... $25.00 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 24 Piece Bucket Of Chicken With Three Large Sides.... $38.00 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• PLACE ORDERS AHEAD OF TIME BY CALLING 410-250-2645 SALISBURY – An educational presentation on the importance of rehabilitating the oyster habitat in surrounding bay waters was given this week as well as an update on Wicomico County’s recent partnership with Oyster Recovery Partnership and its Shell Recycling Alliance. On Tuesday, Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) Special Programs Manager Bryan Gomes explained to the County Council and public the importance of the ORP program and how businesses and the public alike can help. Gomes explained oysters are critical for the ecologic health of the Chesapeake Bay. Known as a “keystone species,” oysters not only filter the bay’s waters, but their reefs also provide habitat for other important marine life. A single mature oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water every day. Their psudeofeces, which is the output result of the way that oysters get rid of suspended particles that have been rejected as unsuitable for food, are then consumed by other organisms on the oyster reef and their shells create habitat for other marine life to attach, spawn, and grow. “In 1608 Captain John Smith came up the bay and there were so many oysters in the bay they were a navigational hazard … the bays population could be filtered by the oysters in just a few days. Today’s population it takes about a year to do that same job,” Gomes said. According to ORP, following the Civil War, oysters became a valuable commodity as they provided a cheap source of protein. Many MidAtlantic communities built their livelihoods around oysters. By the 1880s, the Bay’s oyster output exceeded the rest of the world combined. A hundred years ago, oyster harvests exceeded 10 million bushels a year, but oyster-specific diseases, historic over-fishing, and the onslaught of silt and sediment, run-off and degraded water quality have overwhelmed the remaining oyster reefs, leaving the wild fishery harvest rates at just a fraction of what they once were. The Bay has lost more than 99 percent of its native oysters and continues to lose an estimated 2,600 acres of oyster habitat annually. The ORP was established about 20 years ago and is Maryland’s leading 501(c)(3) non-profit that actively promotes, supports and restores oysters in the Chesapeake Bay for both ecologic and economic purposes. Based in Annapolis, ORP engages in numerous Bay-related projects by conducting sciencebased “in-the-water” and “on-theland” recovery efforts, while conSEE NEXT PAGE