As the local oyster industry recovers from what they describe as one of the worst seasons in the state’s long history, many are reflecting on what factors have led to a staggering decrease in demand and sales.

The number of wild oysters collected by Maryland watermen has been on a steady decline for the past several years, dropping almost 400,000 bushels from the end of the 2023 season to that of the 2025 season. At the beginning of 2026, the total number of oysters collected is already 6,000 bushels lower than it was at this time in 2025. While some elected officials are calling for federal aid for watermen, both watermen and farmers — as well as independent shuckers and local restaurants — report bleak sales in the middle of the 2025-2026 season.

Causing this decline, many said, is a decrease in demand for Chesapeake Bay oysters. In a good week last year, Jeff Harrison, president of the Talbot Watermen Association, said he could be working on the water five days a week. As of Wednesday, however, he had worked only 25 days total this year.

“We’ll probably get a little better” as the year progresses, he said. “But the damage has already been done.”

Gardner Douglas, owner of the Prince George’s County-based S.S. Shucking Mobile Oyster Bar and host of of the educational podcast Oyster Ninja, estimated that business inquiries across the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area have decreased by 70% this year compared to previous years. The number of sales resulting from those inquiries, he added, has been even more disparate.

“We’re honestly at a standstill,” he said. “Compared to past years, it’s super slow.”

Douglas said rising costs, for both consumers and purveyors, has contributed to this decreased demand. Although he said he “never wanted to have an expensive product,” and that he works with clients on accommodating their budgets for shucking oysters at their special events, his starting prices have increased from $125 to $400 over the course of his career.

“Having a raw bar at your wedding, your party, your events, birthday parties … is extra, and there’s not a lot of extra money out there these days. Everyday people, including myself, are feeling the heat,” he said. “Oysters are not how they used to be. For the everyday man, it kind of is a luxury item.”

Another factor, said Leila Avery, a graduate student at the William & Mary’s Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences in Gloucester Point, Virginia, is an oversaturation of the market. Today’s oyster consumer might be interested in varietals of oysters across the coast, rather than those that are most local to them.

“People really want to have a New-England-style oyster with the higher salinity, and Maryland doesn’t really have high salinity unless you’re on the coast near Ocean City,” she said. “Bay oysters don’t have the same appeal as other markets in the region.”

Harrison said he has noticed both a decline and shift in customer demand as oyster offerings continue to diversify due to a growing oyster aquaculture industry and imports from other states.

“At these festivals, we still get [customers asking], ‘Where are they from?’ ‘What kind are they?'” he said. “It’s broken up all that market that we had before and given a little bit to everybody.”

Other farmers, shuckers and restaurateurs said they have not noticed a decline in demand, but have been hurt by other recent events — including a CDC report of a salmonella outbreak linked to raw oysters, which has not increased in cases since its publication last December, as well as the icy fallout of January’s snowstorm. At Baltimore County-based shucking company Mother Shucker’s P.N.B Seafood, co-owners William and Amy Strzegowski said precipitation can make oysters “less flavorful” — and that freezing temperatures can make them unsellable altogether.

“If the oyster freezes, it will die, and then the oyster [shell] opens up. We will not serve a gapped oyster,” Amy Strzegowski said. “That diminishes the count of the oysters in the bushels, and then, in turn, the cost you’re making off of that.”

To mitigate the frozen-over water, field crew Orchard Point Oyster Co. on the Eastern Shore has been breaking five miles’ worth of Chesapeake Bay ice since early February, according to partner Scott Budden. “Sledgehammers, cinder blocks and a 24-foot flat-bottom fiberglass skiff” got the job done, he said.

As the ice starts to melt and oyster season begins to recede, industry members continue to think aloud about how to sustain and grow the demand for Chesapeake Bay oysters across Maryland and beyond. In spite of challenges, Budden remains optimistic about the future.

“It’s more of a slow food, a traditional food,” he said. “To us, the juice is worth the squeeze.”

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