Andrew Murdza doesn't want to live forever, but he may just have to. At 72, he has achieved more in the past two years than most of us have in a lifetime.

In October of 2005 he launched Oyster King 1, Inc - a company whose principal business is cleaning the water of Chesapeake Bay by rebuilding the oyster population - and he hasn't looked back since.

His list of accomplishments thus far include:

• rebuilding the former Johns Hopkins Biolab at Shadyside, Maryland, into Oyster King's main office, learning center, and oyster cultivation facility;
• designing, patenting, and building a new and innovative Oyster Growth Cage that has reduced the mortality rate of young oysters by as much as 80%;
• winning the Daily Record's Innovator of the Year award for 2007 with the patented Oyster Growth Cage and method that impacts all shellfish growers across not just Maryland and the nation, but the entire world;
• producing and airing two Cover Story news releases for Fox 45 television;
• receiving extensive media exposure in numerous Maritime publications including Proptalk, a center-spread in the Anne Arundel Chamber of Commerce newsletter, and a front page story in the Maryland Gazette;
• forming a strategic alliance with Friends of the Chesapeake, an important non-profit Maryland environmental association, that enables Oyster King to become actively involved in Public Service Announcements on Maryland radio and television stations, and to engage in fund raising campaigns and public donation drives;
• being the driving force behind the formation of the Chesapeake Oyster Growers Guild (COG), and becoming its first chairman.

To date Andrew Murdza's Oyster King 1, Inc has put approximately 200,000 oysters into the Chesapeake Bay. This number is far short of the 200 million annual target needed to return the Bay to its former glory over the next five years.

Large scale aquaculture is expensive and Oyster King is no exception. Mr. Murdza has so far invested more than $300,000 in his initiative.

The state of Maryland has for years extended a $500 tax credit to anyone who puts an Oyster Flotation Device under their dock, jetty, or pier. Murdza has the brilliant idea of prompting waterfront property owners to pledge their tax credit to Oyster King in order to accelerate installation of Oyster Growth Cages in advance of payment.

Unfortunately, innovative growth cages and creative sales and marketing concepts are not enough to meet the needs of either Oyster King 1, Inc or the Chesapeake Bay. The current oyster population of the Bay is 10 million - 1% of what it was 50 years ago when oysters cleaned the entire water body in 2 to 3 days.

Andrew Murdza wants Chesapeake Bay returns to its halcyon days in his lifetime.

He'd rather not have to take the alternative of living forever.

Related info:

Chesapeake Bay Journal article

Article from The Capital Newspaper

http://hpl.umces.edu/facilities/oysters.html