Despite many attempts at enforcement, these laws never fully worked. As a result, Maryland passed new laws to protect both oysters and harvesters. 10 Some oyster harvesters ended up dying in their endeavor to make money in the oyster trade.
A lethal combination of greed and guns led to the Eastern Shore becoming a dangerous place to make a living. 9 The start of the Oyster Wars was caused by illegal oyster poachers and legal oystermen that gathered in the Chesapeake. 8 The peak of the Oyster War’s violence started in the mid nineteenth century and lasted until the late 1950s. The Oyster Wars were battles over oyster harvesting territory in the Chesapeake Bay that often became violent.
#Oyster dredge license
Maryland tried to bring an end to excessive competition in the Bay, as well as over-depletion of oysters, by passing laws that required a license to harvest oysters and prohibited certain harvesting practices. These actions unintentionally led to what is now known as the Oyster Wars. As with many successful businesses, competition arose. 6 Since there was no official regulation of the oyster industry, oystermen could harvest as many oysters as they wanted, making it a goldmine for industrious watermen.
#Oyster dredge free
The Bay’s waters also had few predators for oysters, and were free of parasites that caused common oyster diseases. Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay was ideal for growing oysters because of its vast expanses,temperature and salinity. 4 Two other east coast oyster beds in Long Island and Massachusetts could have been other centers for the oyster industry if they had not been previously dredged to depletion. Railroads were close and allowed for distribution to the rest of the country. Baltimore was the best place to have canning houses, the Chesapeake Bay was nearby and easy to access by water. Baltimore, Maryland was the center of this industry, having hundreds of canning houses operating by the mid-nineteenth century. 3 It was during this period, in the 1840s, that oysters became a well-known, popularized product in the emerging canned foods industry. 2 Following economic panics in 18 that led to a national depression, there was an economic revival that started in the mid-1840s and continued well into the 1850s. The 1840s were a time of industrialization in the United States that transformed the scale and structure of American business, not just in manufacturing, but also in retail, transportation, service, banking, and financial industries. “And where there is boom, there is greed.” –John R.
Regulation of the Oyster Industry and the Violence that Ensued
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