Дата публикации: 02-06-2026 14:00:52

Kerry McClaughry


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August 17, 2026



In May 2025, the Maryland General Assembly took another step in Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts with the passing of the Chesapeake Bay Legacy Act. Aspects of this legislation impact aquaculture and commercial fishing industries. Notably, the Legacy Act establishes, for the first time in statute, a statewide water quality monitoring program. Other key points include incorporating the ike jime method of fish processing, altering fishery management plans, and impacting water column lease requirements. As I near the completion of my two-year term as Maryland Sea Grant’s law and policy fellow, I am summarizing these aspects of the Legacy Act. Water Quality Monitoring ProgramOne part of the Legacy Act that garnered support from watermen's associations and NGOs in bill hearings was the formalization of a water quality monitoring program under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Inspired by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s real-time dissolved oxygen tracker, this program will collect water quality data across Maryland, allowing commercial fishers and recreational users to access data about the current waterway conditions. Maryland’s Secretary of Natural Resources, Joshua Kurtz, told Senate and House committees the program will “work closely with citizens, … nonprofits, [and] academia to be able to start incorporating more data.”The program aims to use the most up-to-date science to create a “consistent statewide approach” to improve and integrate water quality monitoring data into policies. Data may be used to guide DNR programs on water quality, aquatic habitats, climate change, and resilience planning.One interesting aspect of this program is its use of community science. Data collected by the public can be used by DNR and formally incorporated into the state’s datasets, provided that these findings meet quality assurance requirements. Data collected both by DNR and the public will be provided to the general public to help guide recreational uses of waterways in the state. Ike Jime LicensingSome parts of the Legacy Act aim to increase the economic value of products harvested from the Chesapeake Bay. To that end, the Legacy Act authorizes the use of the ike jime method by commercial fishers and processors. This traditional Japanese method of killing fish for human consumption is a humane euthanizing practice that also produces a high-quality meat. The current standard method of killing fish allows fish to suffocate, increasing stress on the fish and stress hormones within the meat when processed. In contrast, ike jime euthanizes the fish quickly and efficiently before processing. Higher-quality fish can fetch a better price point at market.The Legacy Act addressed a gray area in Maryland law that allowed only recreational fishers to use this method. The amendments to the statute clarify that commercial fishers, who obtain a Tidal Fish License or a commercial northern snakehead fishing license in order to sell their catch, may use the ike jime method. With the amendments to the existing statute, commercial fishers using the ike jime method do not need to obtain a separate license and can sell directly to restaurants.Fishery Management PlansSpanning nearly half of the Legacy Act’s 28 pages, the amendments and additions to Maryland’s fishery management plans were some of the act's most debated aspects. Fishery management plans are regulatory tools created to help ensure fish species are harvested in a sustainable way. This section of the Legacy Act seeks to help Maryland’s commercial fishing industry to be more adaptive to the effects of climate change by streamlining the permitting process between state and federal agencies. The effort is in step with the 2024 Maryland Whole Watershed Act, which made changes to Maryland’s permitting process for stream and floodplain restoration projects. The Legacy Act relieves DNR’s obligation to establish state-level fishery management plans for some species, allowing DNR more flexibility to create pilot programs for those species. The species not affected by this change are white perch, yellow perch, oysters, blue crabs, hard shell clams, catfish, and cownose ray. These species will continue to be guided by DNR-created fishery management plans. For other species, DNR will defer to regional management plans created by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission or a federal Regional Fishery Management Council. DNR may choose to deviate from regional management plans by implementing a Maryland-specific supplement to those plans if “the Department determines that imposing more restrictive measures is necessary.” Importantly, DNR must consult with the Tidal Fisheries Advisory Commission, the Sport Fisheries Advisory Commission, and “any other appropriate advisory bodies” when considering a deviation.A lack of existing management planning from a regional commission is now a factor which DNR can consider when deciding the necessity of formulating a new fishery management plan. Other factors include the species population, distribution, habitat needs, or other biological, ecological, climatological, or socioeconomic factors concerning the species or the Chesapeake Bay region. The Legacy Act details what may be included in a state management plan, including, but not limited to, limitations on the catch size and necessary conservation measures.One interesting concern watermen voiced in committee hearings on the bill was the language used to refer to those who fish Maryland’s waters. One section of the statute says DNR may not discriminate in implementing conservation and management measures for fishery management plans. The original verbiage in this section was “may not discriminate unfairly among groups of fishermen” (emphasis added). When legislators changed the word “fishermen” to “anglers,” watermen argued that this terminology shift actually limited the scope. As a result, the final Legacy Act states that DNR may not discriminate against “commercial and recreational fishing participants, including individuals licensed to guide fishing parties and charter boat captains.” This change echoes throughout the rest of that section of the Legacy Act.Water Column LeasesThe Legacy Act also made changes concerning water column leases for aquaculture. Though recent years have seen some of the highest aquaculture production of bivalves in Maryland, our state’s production levels are lower than those of similar states. Regulatory hurdles in the leasing space are one barrier to increasing harvests of oysters by aquaculture, so these changes aim to ensure permit applications proceed smoothly. The act adds a survey requirement, clarifies rules about public information meetings, and details what is required in a written petition protesting the issuance of a water column lease.Based on feedback from watermen, local organizations, and NGOs, the Legacy Act saw several amendments before being passed into law by the General Assembly 10 weeks after its introduction. The act was signed into law by Governor Moore a few weeks later and became effective July 2025. This blog covers several ways the Legacy Act impacts aquaculture and commercial fishing operations in Maryland, but the legislation also includes a strong agricultural focus. You can read more about those facets of the law in my blog for the Agriculture Law Education Initiative.










About

Kerry McClaughry



Kerry McClaughry is the Law and Policy Fellow at Maryland Sea Grant. She is interested in promoting good environmental laws and policies that benefit both the environment and communities in the Chesapeake Bay.Contact the author at communications@mdsg.umd.edu


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When Brian Derickson and his wife were looking for an affordable, safe place to raise their family fairly close to Washington, DC, they made what some would consider a radical choice—Smith Island, on the Chesapeake Bay. 

Comprising three villages perched on a cluster of islands 12 miles off Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore, Smith Island was settled some 400 years ago. A deeply rooted watermen’s community, the island and its economy has depended on crabbing, oystering, and fishing. More recently, as it’s become harder to sustain a living in this way and the island’s population has aged and diminished, it has been turning toward tourism as an economic alternative. 

But one of the greatest existential threats to the low-lying community is the Bay itself. The effects of sea level rise, subsidence, routinely higher tides, and more severe storms lead to erosion, loss of marsh and crab habitat, and flooding of roads, homes, and infrastructure. In its 2015 Vision Plan the community noted, “Hard infrastructure is critical to the safety, success, and quality of life on Smith Island,” and “perhaps more than any other issue…requires significant levels of funding and cooperation between local residents and all levels of government.” 

Tylerton, located on the southern part of Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay, is one of three villages on the island.

Derickson had heard “some things” about the island’s flooding issues, but after seeing it for themselves, “we weren’t worried about it.” What the island offered—an affordable place to buy a home, a safe, nurturing place for their kids to learn and grow, and relative proximity to Catholic University in Washington, DC, where he is finishing his PhD in philosophy while he serves in the U.S. Army Reserves —made it the best available option. They bought a house in Tylerton, the island’s southernmost village, and settled in.

It didn’t take long for Derickson to see, however, that tidal flooding was more persistent than he’d realized. Their home sits about a quarter mile from the water, but that always depends on the tide. “I guess it’s never abnormal—it’s the tide. But there are higher events a few times a year. It depends on the cycle—king tides, wind direction…You can’t be far from the water anywhere on the island.”

In October 2024, floodwaters inundated the Tylerton community so heavily that residents could row in yards and streets. Photo: Brian Derickson

A person of action, he began to seek solutions. Researching leads through the Somerset County website, he eventually connected with Eric Buehl, Maryland Sea Grant Extension’s regional watershed specialist for the mid and upper Eastern Shore. Buehl had been working with Kayle Krieg, an Extension coastal climate specialist, in the area but had never been to Smith Island himself. With Derickson coordinating transportation (access to the island via the local ferry can be a challenge because of scheduling) Buehl and Krieg toured Tylerton with Derickson and several other residents in November 2024 to learn about and help define flooding and water ingress problems. 

“I’m the first to admit, I was like a deer in the headlights, I’d never been here before,” Buehl says. The residents showed them where flooding was persistent under some of the homes, and pointed out tidal gates in the marsh that were failing. Derickson described a particularly high tide that lasted for days—“He sent us pictures of his kids on a raft in the front yard,” Buehl says. “We said we could try to assist them in getting grants, bringing in other parties who might be able to help with technical expertise. We warned them this wasn’t a real fast process.”

Buehl and Krieg toured Tylerton and met with residents in February 2025.

Buehl, Krieg, and several other Extension staff made a second visit in February 2025, where a somewhat spontaneous meeting with more than 20 residents became “like a listening session for us,” he says. That helped spur a more organized gathering in June, when six Extension specialists ran a bioblitz-style event, breaking groups into stormwater, climate resilience, marshes, and tree health categories. Residents then led each group through the community, documenting problem areas.

After the focused community exam, Extension specialists facilitated a discussion in which residents identified their top projects for priority focus. These included areas where water consistently pools around houses, poorly operating tide gates, a breached berm, and water impounding behind the town’s bulkhead. They also started brainstorming outcomes and ranking them in categories of “full glass”—best-case scenarios of getting funding for all of their goals—to “just a sip,” the minimum of what they hoped to achieve.

“Ideas ranged from nature-based infrastructure (i.e. native landscaping) to protect against rising seas to strategic placement of fill-dirt in low-lying areas where water has been pooling, as well as a number of other initiatives that build local capacity for adaptation,” wrote Ed Lewandowski, a community development specialist with Delaware Sea Grant who wrote a meeting summary of the June bioblitz. The event “not only helped to generate a rich array of ideas but also strengthened community cohesion and ownership of the resilience planning process introduced by Maryland Sea Grant/Extension. By centering the voices of those most affected, this approach laid a strong foundation for future action rooted in local insight and collective will.”

In June 2025, a team of Extension specialists visited Tylerton for a bioblitz-style event centering residents' experiences of flooding and other issues.

As a result of the meetings, Extension has helped the community apply for grant funding for an engineer who can assess targeted projects, including costs and timelines, from which residents can further prioritize projects and Extension can help focus restoration efforts. They should have word about the grant application to National Fish and Wildlife Foundation by late summer 2026.

Extension is also planning another visit this summer, bringing members of the Center for Watershed Protection and Maryland Department of Natural Resources to see the area and get feedback on potential project ideas and locations, as well as to discuss the potential for beneficial reuse of dredge material as well.

“We’re trying to bring some more people in with expertise to move the needle toward getting something funded,” Buehl says. “This is a marathon, not a sprint…My goal is to help get them through this process and they get some sort of relief through restoration.” 

Though the process is “not linear,” Derickson acknowledges, both he and Buehl agree that the focus should be on practical solutions to clearly communicated problems. For Smith Island, Derickson says, this can be muddied when the community is used “as a political pawn. The narrative pushed is about victimhood—global warming, rising sea levels—but the reality is much simpler.”  

“I could solve a lot of our problems with about eight cubic feet of dirt—fixing a berm and reducing flooding significantly. These problems are simple to fix, but it’s not convenient for larger narratives,” he says. “People shouldn’t catastrophize. These are everyday problems with simple solutions. There’s no reason we can’t fix them.”

Krieg agrees that while some issues are more complicated and time- and money-consuming to solve, immediate solutions to improve daily life are entirely feasible and equally important.

“What are some of the small things we can do to help them live with this water in the meantime?” she says. “What resources can we offer to help alleviate some of the burden, especially as some of them are getting older, so maybe walking along the bulkhead isn’t as easy for them…Would elevated walkways from their house to the higher paths and street be helpful to them, or not? Those are the sort of conversations we have with them. What do they need, what would work for them in reality, not just what we think is a good idea on paper.”

Finding a workable future for Tylerton and Smith Island, Derickson says, is a worthy effort in and of itself.

“The bigger goal is preserving that piece of America. We’ve lost a lot of individuality over time, especially since World War II. This community was hit by that—most children left,” he says. “It’s a shame to see something older than America itself disappear.”

Top photo: October 2024 flooding in Tylerton, courtesy of Brian Derickson.

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