| description:
|
This dataset represents historic oyster bars in the Choptank River as polygons, and provides additional information such as their commonly used (and alternate) names, county, and areal extent. This is considered historic oyster bottom as charted prior to the present, legally designated Natural Oyster Bars, using source materials from 1906 to 1977 including the bars from Yates Survey (1906-1912). The layer and its development are described in a 1997 report (Smith et al. 1997), available at http://dnr2.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/oysters/historic-oyster-bottom.aspx , and a state-wide version of the layer is available from Maryland’s Mapping and GIS Data Portal (MD iMAP) as “Maryland Shellfish - Historic Oyster Bottom”. There are two caveats to keep in mind: 1) The Yates Survey was conducted to define regulatory boundaries at that time, not necessarily to map all oyster habitat, so comparisons between this layer and modern habitat surveys are not warranted; and 2) The layer is historic – it does not depict the boundaries of the current legally recognized Natural Oyster Bars. |