Successful Maryland oyster farm
Here we find the Marinetics hatchery and farm. At a time when the state’s oyster harvest is at historic lows, this farm is a success story. Kevin McClarren manages the farm and he knows exactly how many oysters are there, because he and his crew have planted every single one. Five million healthy oysters on 3,000 floats on the water's surface, with anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 oysters each, according to an article in the Baltimore Sun on-line.
The Marinetics farm is one of only 5-6 commercial oyster farms in Maryland. It is the only farm with a hatchery. Selling about 365,000 oysters over the past couple of years means that the company may break even and even be profitable within the next 2-3 years. The fledgling business is succeeding at a time when the natural oyster harvest has dipped to historic lows. State officials expect this season to yield about half the 165,000 bushels harvested last season, a small fraction of the catch 20 years ago. It was Bob Maze and his wife, Laurie Landeau, who started Marinetics in the mid-1990s. The couple had just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania - he with a doctorate in a parasitology, she with a degree in veterinary medicine.
