Lowery v. State

McDONALD, J.,

dissenting, in which HARRELL and BARBERA, JJ., join.

The Petitioner, Edward Lowery, is in the business of harvesting clams from the bottom of the public waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The law regulates that trade closely, in part because some methods of harvesting — such as that used by Mr. Lowery in this case — rely on a hydraulic dredge to blast the bottom of the Bay, thereby destroying submerged aquatic vegetation (“SAV”) and threatening the balance of the Bay’s *506ecosystem.1 The Legislature has made SAV zones off limits to that method of harvesting, with transgressions subject to…