State hopes Navy radar can nab oyster poachers

More enforcement pledged to protect sanctuaries

Friday, Dec. 11, 2009

Maryland Natural Resource Police have vowed to increase enforcement and use new technology to catch poachers in the act as part of a new state proposal to restore the Chesapeake Bay's oyster population.

Part of that enforcement could involve partnering with the Navy to use some of its established radar systems in the Chesapeake Bay to monitor boat traffic, said Tim Bowman, executive assistant to the superintendent of Maryland Natural Resources Police.

Last week Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced a proposal to increase the number of sanctuaries for oysters and promote aquaculture techniques as an alternative to watermen's traditional harvest practices.

Eric Schwaab, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said last week's announcement was "driven by the pretty unfortunate state of oysters" in the bay.

Oyster sanctuaries are protected areas for the propagation of shellfish and do not allow any harvest of oysters within the marked boundaries. The amount of habitat devoted to sanctuaries would increase from 9 percent to 24 percent of the best remaining oyster beds.

Proposed sanctuary areas include the upper St. Mary's River roughly from St. Mary's College of Maryland northward, an area off Point Lookout and the upper Patuxent River roughly from Battle Creek and Queen Tree Landing northward.

But enforcement of the fishery has always been an issue with so many hundreds of thousands of acres of bay water to patrol with a limited number of officers. With 247 sworn officers, DNR has 33 fewer men and women to enforce the law than it did last year because of budget cuts.

"We're in an era where the state budget is very tight," said Sgt. Art Windemuth, spokesperson for the Natural Resources Police.

Bowman said he is in talks with Navy officials to tie in to radar systems used by Patuxent River Naval Air Station when dropping ordnance into the bay and to monitor air space.

He is also hoping for help from a Navy research lab near Chesapeake Beach in Calvert County that tests radar equipment.

"They both have radar operating that covers the bay and we want to see if that information can be sent to us," he said. "They're interested in sharing that radar with us."

The radar could offer remote monitoring capabilities to track boats in some sanctuary areas. Information would be fed to a central communications office where officers could see when a boat was behaving in a manner consistent with dredging or tonging.

"That's a system that's being developed now with Homeland Security dollars and the governor's security cabinet," said Mike Naylor, DNR shellfish program director.

Bowman said the state hopes to use a $1 million port security grant from Homeland Security obtained in 2006.

There are also plans for the state to use microscopic wire tags inserted into the hinge of oysters to mark where they were planted. These tags could be scanned and tell a buyer or seller where the oyster originally is from.

"Obviously, with the leased portions there is a private security responsibility as well," Schwaab said.

As part of the state's proposal it would be easier for individuals or private businesses to lease portions of the bay and its tributaries for aquaculture. The proposal includes opening more than 95,500 acres of natural oyster bars to lease.

The cost to lease will be a one-time $300 application fee and a charge of $3.50 an acre annually.

In the 1980s there were some 2,000 oystermen licensed in the state. Now there are about 500, with only about one-half of those actively harvesting oysters, according to Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Many of those watermen are from the Eastern Shore, although there are about 100 licensed oyster harvesters from Southern Maryland. The majority, 74, are from St. Mary's, while there are 10 from Charles and eight from Calvert.

In the last two weeks the Maryland Natural Resources Police investigated several reports of oyster poaching that resulted in two watermen being charged.

Joseph A. Coleman Jr., 72, of Chester was charged Dec. 2 with harvesting oysters within an oyster sanctuary. Coleman was allegedly observed by natural resource officers after a complaint from a citizen about harvesting oysters on the Sandy Hill oyster sanctuary on the Choptank River.

On Nov. 24, the Maryland Natural Resource Police charged Russell James Swift, 38, of Crisfield with harvesting oysters within an oyster sanctuary. Swift was allegedly observed by natural resource officers while on routine patrol harvesting oysters within the sanctuary located in Tangier Sound near the Big Annemessex River. 

Earlier this year a 22-year-old Tilghman Island native was given a year in jail, with all but 90 days suspended, for harvesting undersized oysters off the Town Creek bulkhead in the Patuxent River. Joseph Bruce Janda Jr. was found with a bushel basket with about one-third of its oysters undersized, and another that had more than 42 percent of illegal oysters, according to natural resource police.

Windemuth said poaching often occurs under the cover of darkness or fog. When a citizen or other watermen reports illegal activity, natural resource police will respond as quickly as possible to investigate, he said.

jyeatman@somdnews.com