You might say Chris Hopkinson is on board with the Oyster Recovery Partnership’s mission. Specifically, he’s on a paddleboard—and he’s paddling to raise both money and awareness.
Following months of fundraising efforts through the newly established Bay Paddle organization he founded, Hopkinson will attempt to paddle the length of the Chesapeake Bay, beginning on September 18 at the Concord Point Lighthouse in Havre de Grace, Maryland, and arriving on September 26 at the Cape Henry Lighthouse in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Donations and sponsorships from the individuals and businesses supporting his effort will go toward planting oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.
“It’s a big crazy audacious goal,” says Allison Guercio, marketing manager of the Oyster Recovery Partnership, regarding Hopkinson’s paddleboard trip. “I don’t think anything like this has been done before. And at ORP, we love a big crazy idea.”
Hopkinson explains that he got the idea after discovering a love for paddleboarding about six years ago, which gave him water access in a way he never had before, despite having grown up in the Annapolis area.
“I was going all over the place, exploring creeks and rivers; it’s totally a different perspective and you appreciate why people are so passionate about the water,” he says. “It’s the equivalent of going for a hike. You feel connected to the bay itself. You start to appreciate and understand everything: the ecosystem, the crabs, the fish, the herons, the birds. It’s really amazing.”
Around the same time he discovered his newfound appreciation for the watershed, he saw a documentary on YouTube that demonstrated the power of one oyster to filter 50 gallons of water a day. The time-lapsed video even showed oysters in a fish tank with water that went from murky to clear over the course of several hours. “To me, it was astounding that little shell could do so much,” he recalls.
He even recreated the experiment at home with his daughter Olivia for a school science project so the two of them could witness the process for themselves. They used oysters bought from a local seafood restaurant and filled a tank with the murkiest water they could find.
“At first, you could barely see that there were oysters in the tank,” he says. “Within three hours, you could see your hand on the other side of the tank. That was very eye-opening to me.”
The unfortunate reality, he notes, is that the Chesapeake’s oyster population is down 99 percent, which greatly affects the health of the bay. Then he learned about Oyster Recovery Partnership’s environmental efforts and that a $10 donation could help the nonprofit organization plant 1,000 oyster spat—and each of those oysters will go on to filter 50 gallons of water a day. “That’s 50,000 gallons of water that will be filtered every day just based on that $10 donation,” he says.
His idea was, as he puts it, “to do something crazy to raise money and awareness.” He reached out to ORP in 2017 and officially launched his fundraiser in June 2020. He tapped into his connections with local individuals and businesses for donations, and even generated more than 40 donations before the fundraiser officially launched.
He also reached out to Paddle Monster, an online paddling community that he describes as “a go-to site for paddleboarders across the country.” Through Paddle Monster, he connected with coach Seychelle Webster, who developed his training program to help him prepare for the 240 miles he’ll paddle over the course of nine days.
Those who want to make a donation to Bay Paddle or find places where Hopkinson will be stopping along the way can visit www.baypaddle.org. He hopes to add a virtual field trip aspect of the journey so students can follow along at home.
As a fledgling nonprofit organization, Bay Paddle is something that local environmentalists will want to keep an eye on, as Hopkinson hopes to continue its efforts in the years to come. Ideally, he would like to establish an annual oyster festival in Annapolis to celebrate the bay.
As for ORP, its team is thrilled to have Hopkinson collaborating with them. “He’s a tenacious guy,” Guercio says. “He’s not afraid to set a big goal and go after it.”
