The department is soliciting feedback on potential sites to receive substrate and seed restoration in the Manokin River Sanctuary. Information about these sites is provided by:
- Viewing a prerecorded video of a presentation found below
- Attending a virtual public meeting held by the department on Tuesday, February 23, at 5:30pm. The same presentation as mentioned above will be given at this meeting. Login into the meeting either by computer (meet.google.com/gtv-ekws-nks) and phone (1 832-821-6251; PIN: 880 727 106#)
Public comments will be accepted by emailing laurinda.serafin@maryland.gov by Tuesday, March 9, 2021 or by attending the meeting. 
Download the presentation here.
The Manokin River was recommended as the fifth large-scale tributary for oyster restoration in Maryland waters in September 2018. The Chesapeake Bay Program’s Fisheries Goal Implementation Team accepted it as the fifth large-scale tributary for restoration in June 2019. Large-scale restoration efforts are slated to begin in 2021 in the Manokin River sanctuary. The initial implementation phase of the restoration project is anticipated for completion in 2024, with a total of 441 acres of reef restored.
The restoration plan for the Manokin River may be found here.
| Planned Groundtruthing Survey Schedule |
|---|
| Timeframe |
Fall 2019 |
Spring 2019 |
Fall 2020 |
Spring 2020 |
Fall 2021 |
Spring 2021 |
Fall 2022 |
|---|
Seed Only
Acreage |
75 acres
completed |
|
80 acres
ongoing |
|
75 acres
planned |
|
74 acres
planned |
|---|
Substrate
and Seed
Acreage |
|
94 acres
completed |
|
100 acres
planned |
|
139 acres
planned |
|
|---|
The pre-construction groundtruthing reports can be found here, Fall 2019, Spring 2020.
Restoration sites are identified as ‘seed only’ restoration (hatchery-produced spat-on-shell added to existing remnant reefs) or ‘substrate + seed’ restoration (adding reef-building substrate to the reef footprint, followed by planting with hatchery-produced spat-on-shell) or ‘premet’ (sites that already meet the Oyster Metrics target oyster density (50+ oysters per m2) and oyster biomass (50+ grams per m2) and not slated to receive initial restoration). Site treatments may change based annual pre-restoration groundtruthing survey results.
Below is an interactive map with potential restoration reefs in the Manokin River Sanctuary. The legend and layers are located in the upper right hand corner. You can click on a reef to see more information. The information on the map was last updated in July 2020.