Horn Point Oyster Hatchery -- University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Oyster History | Chesapeake...

The Chesapeake Bay has long been considered one of the most productive oyster growing areas in the world. At the end of the 1800′s it was estimated that over 15 million bushels of oysters were harvested annually from the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay alone. The largely uncontrolled oyster harvests that occurred during this exploitation period contributed to...

Oysters Life Cycle

Adult oysters reach their reproductive prime at about 3 years of age. In order for an oyster to spawn, they must eat naturally occurring phytoplankton in the water column and use that energy and invest it into creating a gonad, which will be either eggs or sperm. An oyster uses environmental cues to begin the ripening process in the early spring. An increase in...

Culture Techniques

Different volumes of algae are grown at the hatchery for different purposes. Small scale stock cultures are grown to provide a supply of starter cultures to inoculate larger volumes of water. Intermediate size cultures are grown to inoculate the large scale cultures. The large scale cultures are then used to feed the oyster larvae. When growing algae for the hatchery...

Tours

We offer weekday tours of the oyster hatchery during the spawning season, which runs from March through September. Tour groups during the season may have the opportunity to see oysters spawn, baby oyster larvae, and see a working production facility giving the best experience possible. Tours are open to kids of all ages- from preschool on up and usually last 30-60...

Facilities

In June of 1972, Hurricane Agnes inundated the Mid-Atlantic region with massive amounts of rainfall. Rivers that drain into the Chesapeake Bay collected rainwater and large amounts of sediment from erosion of the land, and sent them into the Bay. This caused salinities to reach record lows resulting in catastrophic losses to some important bay organisms. Populations...

About Horn Point Oyster Hatchery

As one of the largest oyster hatcheries on the East Coast, the Horn Point Oyster Hatchery produces a variety of oyster larvae for use in oyster research, oyster restoration, and educational projects. Over the past decade, spawning oysters at the Horn Point Lab Oyster Hatchery have resulted in the deployment of over one billion oyster spat to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in the hopes of slowing the Chesapeake Bay oyster decline and restoring the health of the Bay.

So why are oyster hatcheries important?

The importance of oyster hatcheries is, of course, due to the importance of oysters and the many benefits of oysters enjoyed by not just watermen and the local economy, but also the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and it's tributaries. Oysters are filter feeders and as the "vacuum cleaners" of the Chesapeake Bay a single healthy oyster can filter 50 gallons of water a day. Imagine the cleaning power of an entire oyster reef! Not only that, the oyster reefs themselves make a tremendous habitat for other Bay residents. For more compelling oyster facts, see more on the importance of oysters