Isabel Hardesty joined ShoreRivers in 2011, and has served as executive director since 2021.

ShoreRivers, a leading environmental organization dedicated to protecting the Eastern Shore waterways, announced that Executive Director Isabel Hardesty has resigned, effective at the end of this year.

Marian Fry, chairperson of the ShoreRivers governing board, expressed mixed emotions about Hardesty’s departure, noting her significant contributions to the organization’s growth and impact.

“Although she will be greatly missed, we wish her well in her future endeavors,” Fry said, adding that the board is actively seeking a strong candidate to succeed Hardesty and that a job announcement will soon be posted on the ShoreRivers website.

In an accompanying note to supporters, Hardesty reflected on her 14-year tenure with ShoreRivers, describing her decision to step down as bittersweet but necessary for her personal and professional growth.

“I am excited, happy, nostalgic, and sad all at once, but mostly energized by the prospect of change,” she wrote. “We are in an incredible period of stability and impact, which is why I feel confident this is a good time for me to launch my next phase, and for ShoreRivers to have a fresh perspective at the helm.”

In the note, Hardesty looked back fondly on the organization’s achievements, including its 2017 merger of legacy organizations, legislative wins, expanded educational programs, and a focus on inclusive community engagement alongside clean water initiatives.

Under Hardesty’s leadership, ShoreRivers evolved by adding capacities in communications, human resources, finance, and databases to the organization as it operated under a robust strategic plan.

“Elected officials recognize us during the general assembly, and the ShoreRivers brand is trusted, beloved, and in it for the long haul,” she wrote, and attributed its success to the staff, board, and, above all, supporters.

Hardesty began her career at ShoreRivers in 2011 as policy director and later served as Chester Riverkeeper, Regional Director, and Deputy Director before becoming Executive Director in 2021.

“Although she will be greatly missed,” Fry wrote, “and we wish her well in future endeavors, the board is already working to find an excellent candidate as her successor.”

Looking ahead, Hardesty plans to consult part-time with Due East Partners on strategic planning and leadership while spending more time with her family. She said she is committed to a smooth transition and will work closely with the board to identify and onboard a new director.

“I want to thank each and every one of you for making this organization and this job wonderful and impactful,” she wrote, encouraging supporters to keep an eye on the ShoreRivers website for updates on the leadership search.

ShoreRivers is pleased to announce the addition of three new members to its Governing Board: Jack Broderick, Ann Swanson, and Loribeth Weinstein. As a grassroots nonprofit organization, the hard work and support of board members is imperative to the organization’s efforts for thriving rivers on the Eastern Shore. ShoreRivers extends deep gratitude for the wise counsel, encouragement, and vision of these exceptional community members. See the full list of Board members at ShoreRivers.org/leadership.

These new voices will bring a wealth of expertise to ShoreRivers, including equal opportunity and civil rights, social and economic justice, grantmaking and local governance, and environmental policy and conservation. Paired with a deep commitment to clean water and healthy Eastern Shore communities, these new members will strengthen the organization’s robust science-based advocacy, restoration, and education efforts.

Jack Broderick is a retired federal manager and long-time community activist and leader on Kent Island who serves on numerous local and state boards and committees, including the Maryland 250 Commission and the Bay Bridge Reconstruction Advisory Group. A former Captain in the U.S. Army, he retired in 2021 as the Director of Equal Opportunity for the National Guard Bureau, U.S. Department of Defense, after 34 years of combined Federal military and civilian service. Broderick lives on Cox Creek and enjoys crabbing, fishing, hunting, and generally spending time on the water.

The former Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, Ann Swanson, has spent four decades as a leader in Chesapeake Bay restoration and been recognized for her work on a regional, national, and international scale. Swanson was the catalyst for the early formation of the Chester River Association and the Sassafras River Association — two of ShoreRivers’ legacy organizations. In recognition of that, and her tireless efforts on behalf of the Bay, and its landscapes and communities, she was the winner of ShoreRivers’ inaugural Award for Environmental Stewardship in 2019.

Loribeth Weinstein spent her career at the helm of non-profit and philanthropic organizations addressing issues of gender parity and social and economic justice. Now retired, she served for two decades as the CEO of Jewish Women International, an organization committed to protecting the rights of women and girls, and is a founder of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has provided more than $16 million in grants to organizations in the Washington D.C. region since 1999. She has a love of Eastern Shore waterways that inspired her to deepen her commitment to environmental stewardship, and is also a Master Gardener.

In addition to its new members, the Board also recently elected its Executive Committee for 2025, which consists of Marian Fry, Chair; Barbara Boyd, Vice Chair; Frank Lewis, Treasurer; Maura Bollinger, Secretary, and Gene Lopez, At-Large.

ShoreRivers also celebrates several long-time Board members whose terms end this year: Meta Boyd, Bruce Abel, Ron Rothman, and Philp Webster. The organization is incredibly grateful to each of them for their years of dedicated service and invaluable contributions.

The Perdue AgriBusiness soybean processing plant in Salisbury, MD, added machinery without a permit, leading to more air pollution, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Two major agricultural companies ramped up operations recently on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and the environment paid a price, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

One case involves the agency’s second-largest cash penalty in its history while the other has reopened a long-running pollution saga that local environmentalists hoped had been resolved.

Perdue’s plant, situated a couple blocks away from its parent company’s headquarters, extracts the oil from soybeans to be used in cooking, among other uses.

Perdue applied for a permit in 2017 but withdrew the application the following year after MDE indicated it would require additional review. The company went ahead anyway with the installation of the new machinery in September 2017, followed by a second round in May 2019, according to the settlement agreement.

After the plant’s expansion, the hexane emissions, state officials say, exceeded the 40-ton annual threshold to be considered a new “major source” of pollution, MDE alleged. Hexane is a volatile organic compound, a major ingredient in ground-level ozone that can worsen an array of breathing problems from asthma to emphysema, experts say.

MDE records show annual VOC emissions increased at the facility by 28% from 2017 to 2019, from 246 tons to 315 tons.

“Everyone must follow the rules which are in place to keep Marylanders safe. When Perdue failed to comply, it was the community who suffered the undue burden, so there must be meaningful penalties,” said Attorney General Anthony Brown. “I am glad that Perdue has accepted responsibility and will be investing in the surrounding neighborhoods moving forward.”

The settlement calls for Perdue to pay an $8 million fine to the state. The only larger civil penalty in MDE’s history was the $29 million settlement in 2018 with Volkswagen over the auto manufacturer’s installation of “defeat devices” on certain vehicles, aimed at circumventing emissions tests.

Perdue also must install $3.5 million in pollution-reduction measures at the plant, including electrifying diesel-fired equipment, and contribute $400,000 to Salisbury for a tree planting campaign in areas with poor canopy coverage.

In separate press statements, the two sides left a muddled picture about when and how the problem came to light. MDE’s legal complaint says that agency staff and Perdue representatives “met at various times” to discuss the cause of the emission increases. It wasn’t until correspondence on April 11, 2022, however, that Perdue “finally admitted” it had installed the equipment without a permit, MDE alleged in a legal complaint.

Meanwhile, Perdue spokeswoman Kate Shaw said in a statement that “The discrepancy was discovered in May of 2020, as part of our air permit renewal process.” Her statement doesn’t indicate who discovered the discrepancy or whether state inspectors were aware of it at the time. She added, “We take full accountability for what occurred. The individuals who did not reapply for the permit are no longer with the company.”

When asked for clarification via email, Bill See, another Perdue spokesman, replied, “Our original statement stands on its own.”

In a separate case, MDE charges that Darling Ingredients, owner of the Valley Proteins poultry rendering plant in Dorchester County, has violated its October 2022 consent decree. Under that settlement, Darling Ingredients agreed to pay $540,000 to the state while fixing wastewater and stormwater problems at the troubled plant.

“I would say this facility is in no better shape than it was in 2021 when we filed the lawsuit,” said Matt Pluta, the Choptank Riverkeeper and director of riverkeeper programs at ShoreRivers, one of the environmental groups whose lawsuit triggered the decree. “In fact, it’s probably gotten worse.”

A few months after the settlement was signed, MDE renewed the plant’s discharge permit, allowing a nearly four-fold increase in the amount of wastewater it can release into the Transquaking River, a nutrient-impaired Chesapeake Bay tributary. Environmentalists had pushed MDE to impose tougher limits and not let the company expand until showing it could meet them, but the agency didn’t do so.

Problems have piled up since that approval. MDE inspectors say they uncovered 51 violations of the decree’s requirement to maintain at least 2 feet of freeboard – the distance from the surface of the wastewater to the top of the holding pits. In May, MDE announced plans to fine Darling $15,000.

The Texas-based company formally contested the fine, arguing that all the exceedances fell under an exception in the decree for lagoon levels to rise because of heavy rainfall.

MDE also contends that the plant has been hauling away production waste from the lagoons without going through the complete treatment process. Farmers use the material, known as “dissolved air flotation,” to fertilize their fields. But in adjoining Caroline County, the practice has sparked an outcry from neighbors about foul odors and prompted county commissioners to enact a moratorium on its storage.

Darling representatives have told the state they believe their current permit allows the hauling to continue. Ongoing upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, required as part of the 2022 decree, will substantially reduce, if not eliminate, such hauling, they say.

“We have responded to the MDE and share its commitment to resolving this issue through the established MDE process,” Darling spokeswoman Jillian Fleming said in a statement.

The agency notified Darling in June that it was referring the hauling matter along with other recent violations to the state Attorney General’s Office.

By Jeremy Cox

Horacio Savala oversees the fileting and packaging operation for Tilghman Island Seafood’s blue catfish processing facility. Quality control is paramount with the fish on ice from the time they leave the water until placed on the fileting table.

Buena Vista Seafood in San Francisco deals in high-end seafood from all around the world. European blue lobsters, Kambatia Reef Fish from Kenya, California Purple Urchins, and Icelandic Arctic Cod, to name a few.

Now, the company has added wild-caught Chesapeake Blue Catfish to its list of offerings.

“Chesapeake blue catfish check all the boxes,” says Polly Legendre, who’s involved in sales and operations for Buena Vista.

 “They’re a great tasting fish, clean and neutral with a nice flake. They’re also an affordable dinner fish whether for white tablecloth restaurants or for the family table. That’s very important in the current state of the nation.”

Legendre said the blue cats check the sustainability box because they’re an invasive species, ”insanely prolific in terms of reproduction. Targeting them for harvest will help ease the toll they’re taking on the rockfish and blue crab populations, both iconic value species that have built the Chesapeake reputation. Tilghman Island Seafood’s processing capacity and dedication to quality control give their filets a long shelf life and are the reason we can get them from the East Coast to the West Coast in great condition. So they’re a sustainable and reliable fishery.

“Finally, and very important,” said Legendre, is the positive social impact for the Chesapeake’s fishing community. “While addressing a real environmental problem, the growing blue catfish industry is also benefiting ice providers, truck drivers, cutters and packagers in the processing facility, and providing a new opportunity for watermen feeling pressure from fewer crabs and rockfish.”

That’s particularly notable, she said, in an era when watermen, here and in other parts of the country, are suffering from more and more restrictions on their harvesting. “This blue cat fishery is adding quota and volume to fisheries, allowing fishermen to catch with abandon. That’s positive for the industry.”

Good diet = Good fish

Unlike other species of bottom-dwelling catfish, blue catfish feed throughout the water column. That diet of other fish, crabs, clams and even rockfish eggs foraged from grasses in spawning grounds, no doubt contributes to the attractive flavor profile that differentiates them from other catfish.

On Tuesday this week, Tilghman Island Seafood Company air-shipped 400 pounds of fresh blue catfish filets westward to Buena Vista, just the latest in many shipments. That’s only a sliver of the estimated 100,000 pounds of fish Tilghman Island is now processing each week for its retail, restaurant and institutional customers such as schools and food banks.

All of those thousands of pounds of fish have been on ice from the time they have been pulled from the Bay’s waters. Tilghman Island Seafood president and owner Nick Hargrove set that water-to-ice standard early on.

Tilghman Island Seafood Vice President Norm McCowan and Office Manager Becky Miller with some of the packaging used to ship orders from coast to coast. Dennis Forney Photos.

He provides insulated composite vats filled with ice for the fishermen and truckers who catch the fish and transport them to the Tilghman processing facility, beside the island’s drawbridge over Knapp’s Narrows. “Keeping the fish on ice throughout the process has become second nature to everyone.  Quality is critical to the marketing of them as Wild Caught Chesapeake Blue Catfish. They have to be marketed that way.”

In the past few weeks, Hargrove has flown twice to Boston for, first, a fisheries conference, and then last week to follow up on more potential new business.  “We have to have sales,” he said.  “I already had a military customer.  More may be on the way. You can’t produce 20,000 pounds a day if you have no customers.  All of it is wild caught and sustainable. Can’t emphasize how important that is.”

While Hargrove is off cultivating new customers, or out on local waters placing spat on shell for his oyster leasing operations, Vice President Norm McCowan manages Tilghman Island Seafood company. “Nick is a great spokesman with great  vision,” said McCowan, “and because he’s a waterman himself, he knows the other watermen and how important the seafood industry is to the region.”

McCowan said Hargrove gets calls almost every day from fishermen wanting  to sell blue cats, while he and office manager Becky Miller handle shipments, processing and packaging.  “We send out samples every day to restaurants and other seafood distributors like Buena Vista. We are meeting the demand for the market we’re creating but we know our potential market is much larger than just state and local.  Texas, for example, is the largest catfish-eating state so we know we need to penetrate the South with our product.”

Exponential growth

The Tilghman operation is a busy place, with trucks always coming and going–coming with iced fish and leaving with more vats filled with ice for the next catch.

“We’re growing exponentially,” said McCowan  “Eighty percent of our sales are frozen, with 20 percent going to the fresh market, locally and across Maryland and as far away is San Francisco. But the catfish problem in the Bay is huge.  Like Nick says, we have to eat our way out if it. We have to take out 15 million pounds of fish a year just to keep up with the current balance. We’ve processed a half million pounds of fish in the past two months–2.4 million pounds since we started a year and a half ago or so. A guy is coming in today with 2,400 pounds of fish.  At 60 to 70 cents a pound, that’s a nice check for him.”

At 30 percent yield, those 2,400 pounds of fish will produce about 800 pounds of filets.

The numbers keep coming.  Hargrove said it’s estimated that the total blue catfish biomass in the Chesapeake is about 150,000 tons, or 300 million pounds. In Virginia’s James River, where the blue catfish were first introduced as a recreational species in the 1970s, Hargrove said it’s estimated they now represent 80 to 90 percent of the river’s entire biomass. “I’ve seen as much as 200,000 pounds come out of the Potomac in one day,” said Hargrove.  “With each fish producing up to 20,000 offspring a year, they’re not going anywhere.  We’re never getting rid of them.”

According to a Department of Natural resources press release, Maryland’s watermen harvested 609,525 pounds of blue catfish in 2013. By 2023, that number had jumped to 4.2 million pounds and is still rising.

With the help of Maryland’s two US Senators, Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and First District Congressman Andy Harris, more than $3 million in federal money has been allocated to stimulate blue catfish processing facilities like Tilghman Island Seafood which is currently Maryland’s only United States Department of Agriculture-certified processing facility.

Hargrove said he is interested in expanding to another facility in Talbot County, preferably on Tilghman Island. “This is where we want to be,” said Hargrove. He said he would also be interested in adding an automatic fileting machine to his operation if he would qualify for grant money to help with the million-dollar expenditure.  “It’s a lot of money but it would enable us to process four or five times as much fish as we do now.  I can’t wait for that though. We have to keep operating and expanding as we are now.”

He said if he were able to get an automatic machine, current cutters could be redeployed downstream in the operation for other aspects such as portioning, creating more of the popular blue catfish nuggets, packaging and shipping.

Harris said he is also working with at least two other parties on the Eastern Shore who are interested in becoming blue catfish processors.

Big buy from USDA?

Meanwhile, at the federal delegation’s urging, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has recently advertised draft specifications allowing it to purchase wild-caught blue catfish filets for national-level institutions, including school systems, penitentiaries, and military installations.

The USDA requires a federal inspector to be onsite at facilities such as Tilghman Island Seafood whenever it is processing fish, to guarantee its safety and quality.  Catfish are the only category of fish for which the government’s most rigorous inspections are required.  Up until now, according to Harris, and due to lobbying pressure from southern, farm-raised catfish producers, the AMS could only buy farm-raised catfish.

The new draft specifications allowing the government purchase of wild-caught catfish are in a comment period before final distribution to potential bidders.

“The good news is they buy by the truckload,” said McCowan. “That’s about 38,000 pounds, which we can do.”

“This would be a big deal for the industry,” said Hargrove. “Eight months ago when the AMS announced plans to purchase farm-raised catfish for its programs, it was for 800,000 pounds of filets. This time around we’ll try to get into it.  We’ll bid.”

He said there’s another plus for wild caught blue catfish. According to a recent Virginia Tech study he said, the heart-healthy omega-3 oil levels–found in many fish–are several times higher in blue cats than in farm-raised catfish.

Hargrove noted that Tilghman Island Seafood has recently been certified for exporting overseas to Poland and Asia.

“There’s definitely room for growth in blue cats,” he said.

Buena Vista’s Legendre will be traveling this week from San Francisco to Tilghman Island for further reviewing, videoing, and discussions with Hargrove and his crew as she continues her plans for ramping up sales of blue catfish west of the Mississippi.

To say she’s excited about the prospects is an understatement.

“I want to sell in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle and San Diego.  The fish and its quality are important to the California chefs but they’re also concerned about the sustainability, the problems associated with invasive species, and helping the fishing communities. We need to let the nation and world know that in this case harvesting this resource is solving more problems than it is causing.  I want to get chefs on some of the cooking shows talking about the virtues of Wild Caught Chesapeake Blue Catfish.”

Upward trajectory comes to mind.

“It’s hold on to your hat with this one,” said Hargrove. “This is still just the beginning.”

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

The number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay is down slightly from last year, to 317 million, but researchers said the numbers are manageable and they see “no serious reason for concern.”

The population estimates come from the annual winter dredge survey released last month by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. It estimated that the overall number of crabs this year is down from the 323 million estimated in 2023.

The decrease was due to a drop in the number of adult crabs, which fell from 207 million in 2023 to 179 million this year. But adult populations are still within a range researchers consider safe.

Although the population of juvenile crabs continued to rise in recent years, it still remains below average.

Romuald Lipcius, a VIMS researcher who helped conduct the survey, pointed to the juvenile and female crab populations as points of focus.

“The number that we saw this year for the females was just below the average … it’s remaining at what I would consider to be at an average level,” said Lipscius, who is also a professor of marine biology at William and Mary University. “Not the safest level, but it’s no serious reason for concern.

“The issue that we have is that the juveniles have remained low for three years in a row,” he said.

Both female and juvenile crab numbers set off a “red flag” in 2022, said Allison Colden, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Although fluctuations in the population are normal, she said recent years have been concerning.

“Over the past few years, that trend, particularly in the juveniles, has remained low. We’re not seeing a spike like we would see typically where it goes up and down,” Colden said.

Colden and others pointed to possible causes for the overall low population numbers, all of which have been caused by humans. Those include pollution and invasive species like blue catfish, which were introduced to the Bay in the 1970s and ’80s for recreational fishing.

“In the James River … blue catfish were consuming on the order of 2 million blue crabs per year,” Colden said. “We know there are tons of catfish out there, and we know that they’re eating blue crabs, so there has to be some sort of impact.”

Mike Glasco, who runs a crabbing charter under the name Captain Puddin’, explained that chemical runoff plays a role in the blue crab population decrease as well.

“What they’re spraying in the fields is where you start the runoff in the bay. Pollution,” Glasco said.

“Three years ago, had a lot of crabs because they were hiding in the grass,” Glasco said. “That spring, after they sprayed the field, we had a lot of rain. Next thing you know, you see the grass floating and the crabs didn’t have anywhere to hide.”

Despite the overall population decrease, Frank Tuma – a commercial crabber who works north of the Bay Bridge – said he isn’t worried about the results from the winter dredge survey because it’s done in the wrong season.

“The dredge survey is done early in the season and what happens is you get a storm or you get a lot of rains like we’ve had and it completely changes what happens to the crabs,” Tuma said.

Weather is more likely to affect the catch, he said.

“Up here, where we’ve had a lot of rain up in the north side of the Bay Bridge, we’re not catching any crabs up here yet. And we should be,” Tuma said.

Researchers said the winter dredge survey is just one tool they have to measure blue crab populations. Carrie Kennedy, the director of DNR‘s Tidal and Coastal Management and Assessment Division, said the agencies are doing a stock assessment this year, which will be more comprehensive.

“Beginning this summer, we’re going to be conducting a stock assessment along with our partners, in the Chesapeake Bay,” Kennedy said. “The winter dredge survey gives us a really good idea of what’s happening every spring and what to expect for the following crab season.

“However, a stock assessment is far more thorough in the biological data … all of our biological data goes into it. All of our harvest data goes into it. and it’s a pretty in-depth look at the dynamics of the life history of this species,” she said.

BY: ELIJAH PITTMAN