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Maryland's oyster population is booming as the number of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay tripled over the last 20 years.

There are several factors contributing to this spike, among them, large-scale oyster restoration efforts, strong natural production and harvest restrictions that were first put in place in 2018.

The Chesapeake Bay is known to produce great oysters that are described as plump and delicate with a flavor profile of "soft salt." While the bay produces oysters naturally, the use of aquaculture allows watermen the ability to tap into this natural resource to "farm" shellfish in a sustainable way.

Farms growing Maryland oysters

An increasing number of these delicacies are coming from the aquaculture industry, which is basically farming in water. Just like farming on land, it starts with a seed.

True Chesapeake Oyster Co. in Baltimore doesn't just serve oysters; it grows them at its farm in Southern Maryland.

"For us, it means a sustainable production of oysters, as opposed to us depending on the wild fishery, we're doing everything ourselves," said Patrick Hudson, the owner of True Chesapeake Oyster Co.

To keep the oysters cultivating, they spend upwards of $100,000 a year on oyster seed.

"It's a big investment, but it's what makes oyster farming sustainable," Hudson told 11 News.

The seeds come from Ferry Cove Shellfish, a state-of-the-art oyster hatchery just a few miles from St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore.

"It's a need and there's demand," said Stephen Able, the president of Ferry Cove Shellfish. "Maryland is one of the few states that still has a wild fishery that operates from October through the end of March. But come 1 April, in between crabbing season, the wild fishery, the watermen have an opportunity to produce their own oysters and make some extra money before the crabbing season begins."

Aquaculture industry seeks to fill need for more oyster seed

In 2013, Maryland aquaculture leases produced 22,428 bushels of oysters. Ten years later, that number ballooned to 94,286, leading to a need for more oyster seed. It's a problem Abel and his team are looking to help solve.

"We house about 30 bushels of adult oysters every year, and those are pretty much the only animals we need to produce billions of larvae," said Steven Weschler, the hatchery manager at Ferry Cove Shellfish.

How oyster farming works

"We're bringing the oysters that we purchased from the commercial industry during the winter, and we stage them into our stockroom, where we acclimate them to a springtime temperature, which they recognize is time to start thinking about reproduction. They sit there for about two months," Weschler told 11 News.

One final bump in temperature to around 86 degrees lets the oysters know it's time to spawn. One female oyster can produce around 20 million eggs per spawning session. The eggs that get fertilized are known as larvae.

They attach to oyster shells that are ground up and become seed. They then live in ultrafiltered water and are fed high-quality algae until they're about 2 millimeters in size. Once they're strong enough, they'll be moved outside to live in water straight from the Chesapeake Bay.

"This is the last stage before they get sent out to our customers," Weschler told 11 News.

Impact on the environment

Hudson said the water-filtering power of oysters is an industry they're proud to be a part of.

"It's really rare to be a part of a business that actually has a positive impact on the environment. So, the bigger oyster farming gets, the better the impact on the environment," Hudson told 11 News.

Able said he thinks Maryland is actually behind in the aquaculture industry, and he hopes to be part of its future growth.