Star Democrat: Johnny introduced SB 922 to overhaul oyster fishery management

Johnny introduced Senate Bill 922 to force the Department of Natural Resources to develop an updated oyster fishery management plan — and give DNR the clear authority to redraw sanctuary boundaries when the science says a sanctuary isn’t working. That’s how you actually rebuild the Bay’s oyster population, not by freezing yesterday’s lines on a map and calling it conservation.

The bill brought watermen to Annapolis to testify in support. That matters. When the people pulling the dredges and tonging the bottoms are the ones telling the committee what works, you get real conservation grounded in what’s happening on the water — not bureaucratic guesswork written by people who’ve never set foot on a workboat in Cambridge or Tilghman.

Johnny has spent his career insisting that the watermen of Dorchester, Talbot, and the rest of the Shore belong at the center of oyster policy. Senate Bill 922 puts that principle into law.