Meet the Extension Specialist: Shannon Hood
Eastern Shore native helps lay groundwork for more oyster farms
Growing up on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay, Shannon Hood hoped her career would focus on the ecology of the outdoor environment as well as the culture of the seafood industry all around her.
She started working toward that goal at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, then transferred to California State University, Long Beach, where she earned a degree in environmental science and spent several years working in coastal restoration. That was followed by an outdoor adventure building a school in Madagascar. Then came the biggest change: a desk job working on science and policy with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in Washington, DC.
“Although I loved my work and colleagues at EDF, it was a total culture shock,” Hood said of her three years of indoor work in the District. “I was trying to figure out how I could combine my love of the outdoors with my interest in biology. So, I decided I wanted to start an oyster farm, and I called around to ask about how I could go through the leasing process to get one.”
Oyster farms had grown in Maryland since 2009, when state law changed and aquaculture became legal in every county—including some where it had been restricted for more than a century. Hood eventually found herself on the phone in 2015 with Stephanie Alexander, who worked in the hatchery at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Laboratory. She told Hood about a summer internship program that provides hands-on experience, teaching interns how to raise oysters in a hatchery, set them on shells or pieces of shells, and help them to grow. Hood jumped on it. Her boss in Washington held her job, just in case, but Hood never went back.
Shannon Hood grows oysters on a demonstration farm at Horn Point.
Shannon loves a job that allows her to be outside.
Five years later, Hood has an oyster farm of sorts—a demonstration facility at Horn Point that helps oyster farmers try out new gear and techniques and helps fill research gaps in hopes of growing the state’s oyster industry. She’s a Maryland Sea Grant Extension specialist, part of a team that helps oyster farmers run their operations more effectively. It’s helpful to have a demonstration farm, Hood said, so farmers don’t have to absorb that risk themselves and lose money.
Because oysters filter the water and oyster farms create employment opportunities, they have become an important addition to the landscape in waterfront communities. The Sea Grant Extension team helps oyster farms get loans, overcome production challenges, and find seafood safety training.
Maryland Sea Grant Extension’s Shannon Hood watches as the oysters are tumbling, being sorted by size—the largest oysters fall out the end of the tube, while smaller oysters fall through the holes into a tub below. Photo, Cheryl Nemazie, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Beyond her Sea Grant colleagues, Shannon works closely with oyster growers and hatcheries, including Stephanie Alexander, the hatchery manager at Horn Point for more than two decades, who told Hood about that internship that brought her back to the Eastern Shore.
"We can finish each other's sentences sometimes," said Alexander.
That connection is especially helpful given the often chaotic and fast-paced nature of industry challenges. But even when work is quiet, Hood is busy. She’s working on her PhD in University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Marine and Estuarine Environmental Sciences graduate program.
“There are farms that started a decade ago, and their needs are really different from the ones starting now. The forward-looking, experimental side of oyster farming is really interesting to me,” Hood said.
She’s still hoping that one of the people farming oysters will be Shannon Hood.
“It’s tough to think about starting one within the next 10 years,” she said, “but yes, I would still really like to do it one day.”
Header photo: Maryland Sea Grant Extension’s Shannon Hood inspects adjustable longline baskets that she and her crew have restocked with tumbled and graded oysters to be deployed back in the water for more growth. Photo, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science/Cheryl Nemazie
