ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGIST TO SPEAK ABOUT OYSTER RESTORATION OCT. 22

Kennedy Paynter, an environmental biologist on the faculty of the University of Maryland, will speak on oyster restoration in Maryland waters in the Fall 2007 Seminar Series of Old Dominion University's Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography (CCPO). His talk will be at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 22, 2007, in room 3200 of the Innovation Research Park @ ODU building.

The seminar is free and open to the public. A reception will begin at 3 p.m. in the lobby outside the seminar room.

Paynter, who is director of the Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences Graduate Program for the University System of Maryland, will describe the largely hatchery-based oyster restoration program in his state. Hatchery production has been used to restore small portions of old oyster bar sanctuaries and to augment oyster abundance on bars actively fished by watermen.

The talk will touch on the lively debate about whether a goal of the restoration efforts should be sustainability of the oyster population.