Talbot Spy: Johnny pushed bill to let DNR redraw stalled oyster sanctuaries

Johnny teamed up with Delegate Chris Adams to cut through the regulatory deadlock that has frozen practical oyster management for years. Their bill gives the state — through DNR — the clear, sole authority to modify oyster sanctuary boundaries without having to win the agreement of every outside non-governmental group with a seat at the table.

For watermen across Dorchester, Talbot, and the rest of the Shore, this is the difference between a sanctuary line that reflects real Bay science and one that’s stuck wherever the lawyers parked it in the last lawsuit. The Maryland Oystermen Association backed the bill and pushed for funding to seed failing sanctuaries with shells from healthier parts of the Bay — practical conservation, not paper conservation.

This is how Johnny keeps fighting for the watermen who keep showing up in 4 a.m. cold to work water that Annapolis spent a decade locking them out of.