It’s been nearly two years since the 1,095-foot Ever Forward container ship ran aground on an upper Chesapeake Bay oyster bar. The Ever Forward was refloated on April 17, 2022, after a month of intensive dredging and multiple extraction efforts, including the help of John S. Connor. 

Connor focused skill in two areas; our compliance team reviewed the situation and determined it would require obtaining special permission from CBP to removed containers while in the bay; and on the marine operations side we assisted by coordinating 21 barge moves over a seven day period from the vessel to Seagirt Marine Terminal.

In 2023, the state required the ship’s owner, Evergreen Marine Corporation, to pay the Maryland Department of Natural Resources $676,200 to fund oyster bar seeding of 147 million juvenile oysters on 41 acres in Anne Arundel County waters to mitigate the event’s impacts.

“It was unfortunate that the Ever Forward ran aground in the area of a protected oyster bar, but we’re glad to see that remediation from that grounding will go directly to helping oysters in the Bay,” DNR Assistant Secretary for Aquatic Resources Kristen Fidler said. “This new planting of oyster spat will be beneficial to the oyster industry and ongoing restoration efforts in Maryland.”