Today at Sandy Point State Park, during a celebration of seafood and the Chesapeake Bay, Robert M. Pfeiffer intends to put on a chef's hat and conduct an oyster soup cook-off. His appearance on the first day of a two-day event known as `D Chesapeake Appreciation Days is part of a savory fund-raiser.
A few days ago, Pfeiffer was wearing a coat and tie, trying to enlist a pair of designers for his dream machine: a winch that could mechanize the laborious process of restoring the bay's devastated oyster population.
Early last week, Pfeiffer was in a wet suit, up to his chest in the cold Choptank River as he helped 35 Dorchester County high school students seed the once-bountiful waters with oyster spat, or young.
"We need more oysters than Mother Nature can produce," said Pfeiffer, explaining the motivation behind his varied roles as director of the Oyster Recovery Partnership, based in Annapolis.
Human and natural forces have combined to ravage what was once the pillar of the bay's seafood industry. After nearly a century of gradually dwindling harvests, the catch has been dismal since the late 1980s when two parasitic diseases swept through the species.
Three years ago, with the ailing oyster stock at an all-time low, watermen, environmentalists, scientists and state officials put aside differences to create an experimental plan they hoped would bring back the bivalves.
The Oyster Recovery Partnership was formed to coordinate and oversee its execution.
Pfeiffer, 51, who became director almost two years ago, attacks the job with a blend of evangelism, hustle and businesslike calculation. He has to, because he is the only paid employee and the group's $100,000 budget relies largely on government grants.
The former high school science teacher, part-time crabber and building contractor from Calvert County has impressed observers with his energy, common-sense approach and ability to bring together sometimes prickly people.
"I think Bob has done a great job of keeping people's eyes on the prize," said Jack Greer, assistant director for the Maryland Sea Grant College.
"The partnership is one of the few real breakthroughs in the way we approach oysters that we've had in recent years," said William Goldsborough, senior fisheries scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation who is on the partnership board.
