Horn Point is the first stop in our three-field trip series following the life of an oyster: from spat in a tank, to juveniles in a garden, and finally, to a home in the Chesapeake Bay. As the largest hatchery on the East Coast, the Horn Point Lab Oyster Hatchery produces millions of baby oysters each year. We’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the remarkable process of oyster production. From broodstock conditioning and spawning to larval rearing and algae cultivation, we will see every stage involved in raising oysters from start to finish.
We will tour the Aquaculture and Restoration Ecology Laboratory, a state-of-the-art facility that has greatly expanded the capacity for oyster production and also provided quarantine and controlled environmental facilities needed to advance oyster culture and disease research. The hatchery produces a variety of oyster larvae for use in oyster research, oyster restoration, and educational projects. Over the past decade, spawning oysters at the Horn Point Lab Oyster Hatchery has resulted in the deployment of over one billion oyster spat to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in the hopes of slowing the Chesapeake Bay oyster decline and restoring the health of the Bay. The Horn Point Oyster Hatchery is part of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.