Photo Credit: Ruby Ella | Courtesy of Chesapeake Bay Foundation
From left to right: CBF Vice Chair Elect Ann Pelham, Truman T. Semans, CBF President Hilary Harp Falk
Former Seafood Market and Ice House in Galesville, Maryland, Will Be Transformed into the Truman T. Semans Center for Oyster Restoration and Innovation
Annapolis, MD - Representatives from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) were joined this week by partners and supporters to celebrate a ceremonial groundbreaking at what will henceforth be the Truman T. Semans Center for Oyster Restoration and Innovation in Galesville, Maryland.
The 2.09-acre waterfront site, known locally as the former Woodfield Ice House, Fish & Oyster Co., has a long history of maritime use deeply rooted in the seafood industry and Chesapeake Bay’s natural bounty. CBF plans to transform the historic site into a new oyster restoration center where science, innovation, and community engagement will thrive. Here up to 50 million oysters per year will be grown for planting on Chesapeake Bay oyster sanctuary reefs.
‘A hub for oyster education, restoration, and innovation’
The new Truman T. Semans Center for Oyster Restoration and Innovation will not only allow CBF to expand and advance its oyster restoration work, but will foster greater scientific collaboration and help people feel more connected to the Chesapeake Bay.
“Our purchase of this site represents a full circle moment for oysters,” said CBF Senior Vice President of Programs Alison Prost. “This historic property where oysters were shucked and processed will soon become a hub for oyster education, restoration, and innovation, where oysters will return to the water and help support a healthier Bay.”
The Truman Oyster Center will act as a Bay-wide gathering place for oyster restoration and provide an open, interactive space for volunteers, partners, and the local community to plan and coordinate Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts. Here CBF will conduct operations including oyster shell recycling, growing juvenile oysters called spat, reef ball building, and oyster gardening programs. The center will provide space to grow spat-on-shell in up to eight large tanks, and house CBF’s 60-foot oyster restoration vessel, the R/V Patricia Campbell.
The Truman Oyster Center will sustainably minimize its environmental footprint and maximize environmental benefits, following in the footsteps of other CBF-owned green buildings, including the world’s first ever LEED platinum building, the Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, and the Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach. These facilities include environmentally-friendly features like onsite solar, electric vehicle chargers, living shorelines, and stormwater management features that minimize pollution entering the Bay.
The center will feature exhibits and educational signage that tell the story of the Bay’s oyster fishery, its watermen, and joint efforts to bring oysters back from the brink after centuries of decline.
Truman T. Semans: A Bay Visionary
The Truman Oyster Center’s namesake, Truman T. Semans, is one of CBF’s earliest supporters and helped establish the organization nearly 60 years ago. He continues to be a champion for the Chesapeake Bay. At the ceremonial event, Semans joined CBF President & CEO Hilary Harp Falk and other Bay leaders to celebrate what’s to come for the oyster center.
“I’ve had a connection with oysters since I was six years old. Oysters have been central to my living and I still adore them — they’re my favorite food,” said Truman T. Semans. “I believe the Chesapeake Bay is the single most important natural resource for people in the United States. It’s worth spending all kinds of time, effort, and fortune to keep going in the right direction. And it is going in the right direction.”
Galesville: Rich in Seafood History
As demand for tasty oysters and other Bay seafood rose in the 1900s, small coastal towns like Galesville became popular spots for the canning and packing industry. In its heyday, from 1935 to 1945, Woodfield's Fish & Oyster Co. was considered one of the largest on the East Coast, selling about 150,000 gallons of shucked oysters per year. During the season, Woodfield's employed up to 125 shuckers that could tackle 800 bushels a day.
In addition to oysters, Woodfield's also sold bagged ice and a wide variety of other seafood, including white perch, shrimp, scallops, and herring roe to local grocery chains and distributed product all over the U.S. Oyster canning at Woodfield's ended in the mid-1990s, due to a steep decline in both oysters and shuckers. Annapolis Produce and Seafood purchased the plant in 2002 and operated it through 2022.
Once a place where oysters were removed in bulk from the Bay when overharvesting was at its peak, the property will become a place where oysters are returned to it — a full circle of healing for the land and water.
Importance of oysters in the Bay
Oysters are a keystone species in Chesapeake Bay. An adult oyster can naturally filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Their uniquely structured oyster reefs also provide critical habitat for almost every other aquatic critter in the Bay.
The Chesapeake Bay’s oyster restoration effort is the largest in the world. Getting oysters back in the Bay has been one of the ‘Save the Bay’ movement’s most critical pillars, and its greatest success story to date. In Maryland alone, oyster populations have tripled since 2005.
“Oyster restoration is working, and we want to build off that momentum and proven success,” said CBF Maryland Executive Director Allison Colden. “The new Truman Oyster Center will help us do just that — offering new opportunities for innovation, scientific collaboration, hands-on community experiences, and supporting our efforts to grow oysters and get them back into the Bay and its tributaries.”
Oyster restoration requires ample space and waterfront access. It starts by setting oyster larvae onto recycled oyster shells in large tanks. Once attached, the juvenile oysters, known as spat, are planted onto sanctuary reefs throughout the Bay by CBF’s purpose-built restoration vessel, the R/V Patricia Campbell.
Other spat are distributed to oyster gardeners across the watershed. Volunteer oyster gardeners hang the baby oysters off docks in cages, at their homes or at one of CBF’s public locations. This process helps keep the young oysters elevated from the Bay’s muddy bottom and aids their survival in early life when they’re most vulnerable. Once the oysters are about a year old, they are then planted out onto a protected sanctuary reef.
This work heavily relies on the dedication of private funders and volunteers. The new Truman Oyster Center will allow CBF to host and engage more volunteers, students, community groups, and partners in hands-on oyster restoration. Visitors will build reef balls, collect and prepare recycled shells, participate in oyster gardening, and more.
CBF’s oyster restoration program has operated for more than 20 years and produced nearly half a billion oysters since its inception.
The road ahead
CBF is currently finalizing architectural plans for the new Truman T. Semans Center for Oyster Restoration and Innovation. The center is expected to open in 2027.
During construction, CBF will engage with the local community in Galesville and prospective partners across the watershed. The property, including an existing boat ramp, will be closed to the public during parts of construction when visitation is unsafe. The new and improved space will welcome community guests upon completion.
In the meantime, CBF will continue its Maryland oyster restoration operations out of its current location in Shady Side.
