Sec. Day Discusses Oyster Facility in Cambridge

(CAMBRIDGE, Md) – Oyster research in Cambridge is getting a boost in funding in the latest Maryland state budget.

It’s all part of over ten million dollars in grant money going towards Maryland’s Seed Community Development Anchor Institution Fund.

And one of those is going to be an oyster processing facility with a publicly accessible exhibit at the Packing House in Cambridge.

Maryland Secretary of Housing and Community Development, Jake Day says they’re partnering with the Baltimore Zoo as well as Horn Point Labs, based in Cambridge on this new facility, with education being at the forefront.

Secretary Day tells us, “This is just another avenue in for the public at large and for youth to learn about, the value of mollusks in general and the oyster specifically, and its effect on the bay.”

The facility is still in the early stages of planning with Secretary Day saying the timeline could change.

However, having the state work with the likes of Horn Point Lab to make their work more easily understandable to the community is a big step towards better health for the Chesapeake Bay.

“When partners come alongside them to better understand the value of people getting what they’re doing, then they benefit from it. The research and scientific community benefits from it. It makes it easier to make a case for, public investment in those things. Makes it easier to make a case for why they exist,” says Day.

The project in Cambridge is one of more than 20 across the state of Maryland receving part of that ten million dollars in grant money.

We reached out to Horn Point Labs for comment on the facility and working with the state on this project.

They’ve declined to comment at this time.