The 2016 Oyster Deliveries were held on Thursday, September 29th. Staging took place at the Easton Point Marina on Port Street where 62 volunteers met at 8:00 a.m. to be briefed on the details for staging and for individual driving routes. Volunteers enjoyed hot coffee and donuts while they waited for the arrival of our spat-on-shell.

Shortly thereafter, Tommy Price of the Oyster Recovery Partnership delivered all of the oyster spat, which was produced by Horn Point Laboratories. Despite threats of rain in the forecast, ORRI had a wonderful overcast fall day for their deliveries. This weather was actually better for the oyster spat, as it can last longer out of the water on cooler, cloudy days than it can on a warm sunny day. When the spat arrived, the volunteers distributed the bagged spat into cages and buckets for delivery. New growers received cages with spat, while existing growers, who already possessed their cages, received their spat by way of bucket. After staging was completed in a record-breaking one hour timeframe, the 62 volunteers delivered 1012 cages worth of oysters to 322 households. 30 driving routes were set up for the deliveries to take place and all were completed by Friday afternoon.

What an accomplishment! Thank you to all of our volunteers who donated their time and energy to make this Oyster Delivery possible! We greatly appreciate your dedication to helping to restore oyster reefs in the Bay!