Market News

A Call to Arms

Believe in Maryland Seafood?  Want to get more involved?  Here are a few things coming up over the next couple of months that you can get involved with to help support your local watermen.  If you are interested in any (or ALL) of the following promotions please email me so I can get you on the list.  Thank you all for your support!

From the Bay, For the Bay - Last year's promotion was a huge success with over 200 restaurants coming together to raise over $25,000 for the Oyster Recovery Partnership.   It was such a success that we are doing it again!  October 6-13^th participating restaurants will donate $1 for each Maryland Seafood dish sold during the week (minimum donation $50).  We will be advertising the restaurants via social media, the MTA, Governor's PSAs, press releases, and other media.  You pick the menu items, you determine the menu price.  It is very easy to participate.   Last year the promotion allowed us to put nearly 3 million oysters back into the bay!

Seafood Festival at Sandy Point - Each year we host a demo tent at the Maryland Seafood Festival.  Restaurants come in and show a crowd of 30-50 how to make various MD seafood dishes (your choice).   We then hand out samples of your dish to the audience.  Last year over 5,000 local seafood lovers attended the event.   We would love to have your restaurant highlighted this year!  This year the festival will be on September 8^th and 9^th.

Oyster Recipe Contest - The Southern Maryland Oyster Festival is beginning to collect recipes for their contest this fall.   Send in your best oyster app, entrée, or soup/stew and you could win cash prizes. We need all of the recipes before the end of July.  We are also looking for a judge for this event if you are interested.

Crab Soup Cook-off - Each year at the Maryland Seafood Festival we feature the MD Crab Soup Cook Off.  Last year 28 restaurants participated and over 2,500 people tasted the soups. 

True Blue - We are up to 90 restaurants signed up for the True Blue program.  To be eligible, over 75% of your annual crabmeat purchases must be made from Maryland.   We will help advertise your business and get your name out there as one of the 'True Blue' certified MD crabmeat restaurants.  For more information check here:  http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/trueblue/ 

On the seafood news front:

There isn't much going on out there.  The hot weather has really changed the usual patterns of the fish and crabs.   A waterman told me yesterday that he fished for over 8 hours yesterday, burning nearly 100 gallons in fuel, and only caught 8 fish.  This certainly was not a great return for the day.  

Crabs aren't fairing much better.   There are plenty of crabs being caught, however,  most of them are juveniles and are too small to be harvested.   We expect that these crabs will be market sized by fall and we should have a great late season run.

Steve Vilnit
Fisheries Marketing Director
MD DNR Fisheries Service
580 Taylor Avenue Floor B-2
Annapolis, MD 21401