November 4, 2003

UMBI’s Zohar Honored with the Maryland Watermen Association’s RACHEL CARSON AWARD and the GOVERNOR’S CITATION

Annapolis, MD - On November 2, the Maryland Watermen’s Association presented Dr. Yonathan Zohar, Director of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute’s Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB), with the prestigious RACHEL CARSON AWARD. The award, which honors vision and dedication in Chesapeake environmental issues, was presented during the Bay Appreciation Days Festival at Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis, Maryland. Dr. Zohar was also awarded the Governor’s Citation for his “impressive work with the crab hatchery” and “dedicated efforts on behalf of our environment and the health of the Chesapeake Bay”.

Rachel Carson, respected environmentalist and author, published the landmark book “Silent Spring”, which galvanized a nation to reconsider the effects of chemicals on the natural world. Carson was a pioneer and a crusader whose writings transformed the environmental movement in America and set a precedent for the world. The Maryland Watermen’s Association selected Dr. Zohar for this award because of his courage, leadership and vision in pioneering the Blue Crab Research and Hatchery Program at COMB, setting a standard that is receiving not only national, but global attention. Zohar’s research and collaborative efforts, according to the Maryland Watermen’s Association “have given all watermen a sense of trust in the scientific community,” and have provided Maryland’s Watermen with “hope for the future…that is so vital to the commercial fishing industry and to the watermen communities of Maryland”.

Previous recipients of the award include Deputy Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, William “Pete” Jensen, and former Secretary of Natural Resources Tori Brown. Larry Simns, President of the Maryland Watermen’s Association presented the award to Dr. Zohar. The current Secretary of Natural Resources, Ron Franks, presented the Governor’s Citation to Dr. Zohar at the ceremony.

The goals of the Blue Crab Research and Hatchery program include understanding the basic biology of the Chesapeake blue crab, develop hatchery technologies and study the feasibility of using hatchery produced juveniles to enhance the blue crab breeding stocks in the Chesapeake Bay. During the three years since its inception, Dr. Zohar and his team were successful, for the first time in history, in “closing the life cycle” of the blue crab in captivity, which included mating adult crabs, and raising their offspring through maturity to produce a second generation of offspring. COMB has raised around 100,000 blue crab juveniles and experimentally released about 50,000 of the 20 mm long baby crabs, all individually tagged, to the Chesapeake Bay. So far, the survival rates of the hatchery- raised crabs are extremely encouraging. COMB’s partnering institutions in this program, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, have verified that up to 20% of the juveniles survive to maturity (5 inches) at 5-6 months of age, a year sooner and with much higher probability of survival rates then their wild counterparts. At that stage, the hatchery crabs migrated out of the coastal zone to join the spawning stocks. The next stage of the research will involve establishing and operating an outdoor hatchery capable of producing millions of juveniles for release into the bay.

Dr. Zohar joined the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute’s Center of Marine Biotechnology in 1990 as Professor of Aquaculture Biotechnology. He has served as the Director of the Center of Marine Biotechnology since 1997. He is considered one of the world's leading authorities in the field of comparative endocrinology and marine aquaculture and is widely recognized for his pioneering achievements in developing technologies for broodstock management, hatchery production and the intensive farming of commercially important marine fish. During his tenure at COMB, Dr. Zohar has led many successful programs, some of which include: an active research program aimed at understanding the basic biological problems that currently retard the establishment and intensification of marine aquaculture; developing biotechnologies to address problems in the fish farming industry, fisheries stock enhancement; and more recently, blue crab biology, hatchery technologies and stock replenishment.

Additional information regarding the Blue Crab Research Program can viewed by visiting http://www.umbi.umd.edu/~comb/programs/aquaculture/bluecrab.html on the web. Information on Dr. Zohar’s current research is also available on the web at http://www.umbi.umd.edu/~comb/faculty/zohar/zohar.html.

The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute was mandated by the state of Maryland legislature in 1985 as "a new paradigm of state economic development in biotech-related sciences." With five major research and education centers across Maryland, UMBI is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology. The centers are the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology in Rockville; Center for Biosystems Research in College Park; and Center of Marine Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology Center, and the Institute of Human Virology, all in Baltimore.