CHOPTANK RIVER, MARYLAND — Talbot County put $125,000 behind a Choptank oyster pilot with Ferry Cove Shellfish, the Talbot Watermen Association, and Wittman Wharf Seafood. The partners’ late-June 2026 plan called for roughly 20 million oyster spat-on-shell — not free-swimming larvae — across 10 acres of public oyster bar in the Choptank.
Ferry Cove’s hatchery is at 21770 Lowes Wharf Road, Sherwood, MD 21665 — not in St. Michaels — per Maryland’s Best and the company’s GuideStar filing.
The bet is double-sided. As the oysters pull nitrogen and phosphorus from the water, the project can generate nutrient credits under Maryland’s trading program, pairing water-quality work with income for working watermen. Ferry Cove CEO Stephan Abel said aquaculture, environmental stewardship, and Maryland’s working waterfront traditions can work together.
One planted bar does not clean every Talbot creek. It does put live shell where the river needs it, on terms the county and the watermen both signed.
Source: TalbotWorks
Drawn from public records; drafted with AI and edited by Peter Gorman before publication.
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