If you have ever driven or biked to the end of South Morris Street in Oxford you discovered an assortment of buildings behind a tall chain link fence, and you probably wondered “What goes on in there?” Well, a lucky group of Oxford Museum members got to find out on a recent Friday evening. One attendee said: “It was like the wizard pulling the curtain back!”
The Oxford Lab was established by the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in 1960 for the primary purpose of investigating oyster diseases that had struck Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. In 1964, the same year that the Oxford Museum began, the Lab moved into its permanent Oxford home on 11 acres along the Tred Avon River. The facility is now shared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the U.S. Coast Guard. The property was originally part of Bachelors Point Farm and then owned by the Tidewater Inn. The Inn transported guests from Easton to Oxford by train to use the sandy beach there. Only the foundation of the bathhouse remains today, replaced by a boat pier and living shoreline.
The Lab continues to conduct research on oyster disease and ecosystem services, they study and map fish habitats and develop ecological forecast models. Lab scientists investigate marine mammal and sea turtle strandings, and research and develop fish health policies.
The attendees were welcomed by Lab Director Dr. John Jacobs who presented a brief history of the Lab, then taken on a fascinating walking tour of the facility by Director Jacobs and Research Microbiologist Dr. Shawn Mclaughlin. The group saw several research labs outfitted with complex equipment, including necropsy labs that were right out of your favorite CSI show, a recovered partial whale skull that was bigger than your dining room table, and an outdoor tank housing rare and protected sturgeon. What impressed and amazed the group the most was learning that the scientists can now sequence the entire genome of the oysters and fish they are studying right at the Lab.
If you would like to learn more about the Lab, visit the Oxford Cooperative Lab, Sixty Years of Science exhibit at the Oxford Museum, running through October. The Museum is at 101 S. Morris Street, the hours are Friday – Monday, 10 am – 4 pm, and admission is free. On September 7 Jim Uphoff (MD DNR) and September 14 Sierra Hildebrandt (NOAA) will be on hand at the museum from 11:00 – 1:00 to answer your questions.
On September 12 at 5:30 pm, Andrew Leight will present “Assessing the Ecosystem: The Oxford Lab and NOAA’s Habitat Focus Areas.” at the Oxford Community Center, 200 Oxford Road. All are welcome and admission is free.
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