Since 1996, Maryland Sea Grant has helped develop a strong network of aquaculture educators who participate in the Aquaculture in Action program. Sea Grant education specialists lead teacher professional development programs that demonstrate how to construct and operate classroom aquaculture systems. These educators take these lessons back to their classrooms to provide hands-on experiential learning opportunities that allow students to develop skills in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and engineering. In 2017, Maryland Sea Grant taught 20 teachers who supported 14 aquaculture projects including five new schools in Maryland. Over 900 students raised and released more than 2,500 native fish.

Maryland oyster production benefits the state’s seafood industry which exists largely in rural waterfront communities with limited employment options. In 2017, Maryland Sea Grant provided watermen and seafood processors with production and business skills through the Oyster Aquaculture Education and Training Program, conducting 22 workshops, short courses, and field demonstrations attended by 217 participants. This extensive vocational education and training helps watermen, entrepreneurs, and seafood processors transition into or expand shellfish aquaculture businesses.

The industry has grown in recent years through Sea Grant’s efforts; from 31 growers producing 186 million in seed oysters in 2014 to 45 growers producing 269 million seed oysters in 2017. The state now has 409 active leases covering 6,600 acres which support more than 170 jobs, pushing the value of Maryland’s Chesapeake and coastal bays oyster aquaculture to $5 million.

Stormwater runoff remains a key source of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. Since 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency has mandated that municipalities reduce pollution to the Bay and its tributaries. City and county officials tally stormwater best management practices and can estimate how much pollution was reduced by installing a certain practice, but if the practice was not installed correctly, the tally is likely incorrect as well. Without a standardized list of practices, managers have difficulty calculating their stormwater pollution-reduction benefits.

Maryland Sea Grant watershed specialists developed a training manual and certification program that provides a consistent set of standards and outlines how much of a reduction in pollutants a community can expect after implementing certain practices. The program has trained and certified nearly 300 professionals since beginning in 2016. Professionals in the program have installed rain gardens, restored streams, erected living shorelines, put in riparian buffers, and swapped out impervious paving for porous materials. These practices have reduced nitrogen by 775 pounds; phosphorus by 370 pounds; and sediment by 509,929 pounds.