Oyster Recovery Partnership - From the Bay, For the Bay 2011

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COME ON IN! The Water's Fine...

OUR MISSION

Restoring Our Oyster.
Cleaning Our Bay.
Preserving Our Future.
This is the mission of the Oyster Recovery Partnership or "ORP," a 501 (c)(3) non-profit based in Annapolis, MD. ORP actively promotes, supports and restores for ecologic and economic purposes. We engage in numerous Chesapeake Bay-related projects by conducting science-based "in-the-water" and "on-the-land" recovery efforts, while conducting public outreach and education in our quest to protect our environment, our heritage, and our knowledge of the Chesapeake Bay, its marshes and rivers, and the life that it sustains.

From the Bay, For the Bay Dine Out is a celebration of Maryland Seafood from Philadelphia to Northern Virginia. During this week-long promotion, participating restaurants across the mid-Atlantic featured fresh Maryland seafood and provided their patrons an opportunity to support Chesapeake Bay watermen and the ecosystem. For every Maryland seafood dinner sold during the promotion, participating restaurants donated $1.00 to the Oyster Recovery Partnership, a non-profit organization that works to replenish the Chesapeake Bay’s native oyster population. Results from the promotion are being tallied now. Stay tuned for the results....

Since 2000, the Oyster Recovery Partnership, along with its coalition of partners, has planted nearly 3 BILLION oysters in the Bay -- with each mature oyster able to filter 50 gallons of water per day—and restored nearly 1,500 acres of Bay bottom!

For a list of participating restaurants and to learn more, please visit: http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/fromthebay/index.asp

ATTENTION RESTAURANTS: Recycle your oyster shells and leave your legacy on our Bay!

In an effort to restore oysters to the Chesapeake Bay, restaurants around the region have become proud
partners in Maryland’s Shell Recycling Alliance. Oyster shells provide critical habitat for new oysters and other important marine life to grow so returning them to the Bay and its tributaries is critical. In fact, oysters are a “keystone species” that used to filter the Bay in just days. Now, it takes more than a year.

Oyster shells collected through the Shell Recycling Alliance are then replanted into the Bay with new baby oysters (“spat”) attached. As a member of this elite group of business owners who care about our Bay, you will receive materials needed for the program including marketing materials to alert guests about your participation.

Join us in providing the Bay’s most special guests – oysters – a new, sustainable home! To learn more, visit the Shell Recycling Alliance page on www.oysterrecovery.org or call 410.990.4970.