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Captain John Smith once wrote that the creatures in the Chesapeake Bay were so plentiful that his cook could catch a meal with a frying pan. But over the four centuries since then, the seafood population of the Bay has felt the effects of its human population and the various industries that have grown up in the area.

Modern fishing technologies and dredging to allow passage of shipping traffic scoured the bottom of the Bay, severely disrupting the habitat it provides for numerous species of flora and fauna. Virginian and Maryland watermen waged wars over control of the resources of the Bay. And urban sprawl and agricultural products added pollutants, including an overabundance of nutrients, to the picture. Sound alarming? So was the projection mentioned in a study published in Science magazine in November 2006. The authors of the study “Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services” project that if current trends that place a variety of pressures on marine ecosystems continue, the world's seafood supply would be in a state of ‘collapse' by 2048. As if that wasn't scary enough, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) followed up 2 weeks later with its annual State of the Bay report, giving the Bay a barely passing grade of D for the eighth straight year.  

Is It Really That Bad?

Mass media outlets are notorious for blowing scientific findings out of proportion, so are we really likely to be doomed to a life without shellfish? Dr. J. Emmett Duffy, of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and a coauthor of the report published in Science, says that while an extrapolation of current conditions would indicate a collapse in global seafood supplies in a few decades, he doesn't think it is a foregone conclusion. “We need to point out that the projected trends in loss of seafood are not a prediction and I think that's an important distinction. We already know that we can sustainably manage fisheries stocks. So the good news is that we have both the know-how and the technology to prevent this from happening. “It's really a matter of continuing to implement the basic practices that we are already using in some circumstances, so I personally don't think we are going to see a collapse by 2048. I like to think that we are smarter than that.” Many of those in the fishing industry were, understandably, defensive about what seemed to be dire news about their livelihoods, calling the Science and CBF findings alarmist. Larry Simns, head of the Maryland Watermen's Association, and lifelong waterman from Rock Hall, still believes that the Bay can feed the region and that the Bay is “in pretty good shape. . . The public and commercial fishermen won't let anything happen, because it's their livelihood. We are out there on the water so we can see what is happening and what needs to be done.” Others look at the projections from current trends as a wake-up call. Noreen Eberly, director of the Maryland Department of Agriculture's Office of Seafood and Aquaculture, says, “I think the point was to get people to sit up and take notice that there's a problem.” Eberly cites previous work done on the rockfish, or striped bass, population and how the fishery management systems of Maryland and the Atlantic States Fisheries Council have made sure that population is well. Dr. Don Boesh Boesch , president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, who the writers of the study consulted, feels that the projection was just a “minor throwaway line” they wrote about what might happen statistically if they extended the curve. But there are declining stocks of fish throughout the world. “We saw that most dramatically,” Boesh Boesch says, “in the developed world, where we have mechanized fishing. Since then, the collapse of fishing stock has been largely arrested and we're trying to recover some of those stocks—with mixed success.” The bottom line, Boesh Boesch says, is that “we can't continue to do what we are doing with respect to overfishing.”  

What Can We Do?

There are numerous ways to protect fish populations—some more extreme than others. Grasonville resident and environmental activist John Cleveland is the leader of the newly formed Global Warming Action Alliance. He suggests taking a leaf from the federal programs that pay farmers not to grow various crops, and subsidizing Bay watermen not to work the waters for the next 10–20 years, till the Bay has had a chance to recover. He calls for a complete moratorium on all types of Bay fishing, whether crabs, oysters, or fish “and subsidize fishermen for a period of time so they can get retrained for other jobs.” If we do that, Cleveland predicts that the Bay can “clean itself up tremendously. But what we need to do is let the oysters and fisheries come back. We also need to stop the runoff from agriculture and development and also keep the power plants from spewing their garbage into the Bay.” Echoing Cleveland 's proposal, the University of Maryland 's Boesh Boesch notes that the moratorium on taking rockfish helped that population to restore itself: “The prudent harvest restriction of the rockfish is seen around the world as one of the success stories of fisheries management.” Now these lessons are being applied to managing the blue crab stocks, and while recovery of the crab population is not to the point “where we can claim it's been successfully recovered, it seems to be headed in the right direction,” says Boesh Boesch .  

The Little Invertebrate that Could Save the Bay

Much depends on the oyster. Besides being a tasty treat, this humble invertebrate acts as a natural filter, helping to lower levels in the Bay. But oyster habitat is scarce in the Bay these days. The Oyster Gardening Program, a cooperative effort of the Oyster Alliance (which includes the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Maryland Sea Grant Extension Program, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and the Oyster Recovery Partnership), aims to remedy that situation. The program grows oysters near the surface of the water, in protected cages that provide exposure to oxygen and phytoplankton (their food source) and help produce big, healthy, mature oysters for Chesapeake Bay restoration. The cages also offer some protection from predators. After several months in this environment, oysters should be ready for planting on sanctuary reefs. The Maryland Watermen's Association's Simns praises the partnership, which includes scientists, watermen, and citizens. He says the present effort of reseeding waters like the Choptank and the Chester Rivers , among others, with hatchery-grown oysters that are disease free is showing good results. “It seems to give the oysters a jump start, because if they've had a couple years to grow they seem to be better able to overcome any diseases” in the water. He also supports the introduction of a different, more disease-resistant oyster to the Bay in an effort to restore the overall oyster population quickly. While many watermen support such an approach, introduction of new species is hardly universally supported. Scientists and environmentalists generally discourage this line of thought, citing previous examples of ecosystems that have been dangerously disrupted by invasive species. Study coauthor Duffy warns, “We have to realize that species are connected. It's not enough just to concentrate on one type of fish.” He compares the ecosystem to a spider web: “if we poke it in one place, the effects sort of ripple outward and can have unforeseen consequences.” One example of how a single species can disrupt an entire ecosystem is the mute swan. The English native came to the Chesapeake region as a domestic species and then escaped into the wild. It is an aggressive species that has out-competed native birds for habitat and eats enormous amounts of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), which is the foundation of the Bay's food chain. Another example is the zebra mussel. Duffy notes that even though they weren't intentionally introduced into U.S. lakes and other waters they have still taken root, overcoming local life-forms, “with really massive negative consequences.”  

Volunteers and students have planted about 5.5 million oysters along the reef sites at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center since 2002, with another 2.5 million in the works for this summer.

Looking Beyond the Bay for Solutions

Curbing runoff from agricultural sources and roadways and improving sewage treatment, aquaculture, and species management—will these be enough to safeguard sea life stocks? What should we as citizens of the Chesapeake take away from the warnings of the Science article and the CBF? Duffy says, “I think the main message from the paper is that biodiversity matters. It's important to maintain a healthy, functioning ecosystem and the services that it provides to humans [including food stocks and clean water]. So we need to have a lot of species present—not just the fishes that we harvest but the organisms they eat, such as the small crustaceans, the invertebrates, and the sea grasses that provide structure and support for the fishes.” He sees two steps to Bay recovery—first “is to have sufficiently good science so that we know what is happening in the ecosystem so that we know how things are interacting.” Second “is implementing policy that is based on that science . . . thoughtful management can prevent catastrophe.” Waterman Simns is counting on a collaborative approach from all of us. “If all the groups that use the Bay and the oceans would stop fighting each other and start fighting for the things that need to be done to keep the water healthy, we wouldn't have to be fighting over what we catch because then there'd be enough for everybody.”  

Annapolis resident Bridget Avila has a degree in ecology from Tulane University. Michael Driscoll is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Stevensville.

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Did You Know?
The Chesapeake Bay covers 2500 square miles and is the largest estuary in North America.  An estuary is a partially enclosed area where the fresh water from rivers mixes with tidal salt water.  The Chesapeake Bay was formed more than 10,000 years ago when melting glacial ice caused sea levels to rise in the Atlantic Ocean.  The rising waters of the Atlantic backed up into the Susquehanna River Valley, creating a new bay.  The bay that was created by the flooding of the Susquehanna was known as Chesepiooc, meaning Great Shellfish Bay, by the Algonquin Indians who were living around it when the first European settlers arrived.  

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Fish Farming

 

The Alternative to Helping Restore Fish Habitat is Raising Fish and Sea Vegetation in a Controlled Environment

Aquaculture—farming the sea as one might the land, raising oysters instead of cattle—is on the rise. Here in Maryland, Quiet Waters Park in Anne Arundel County saw an attempt at aquaculture at the turn of the century, but local watermen, fearful for their livelihoods, suppressed that move.

According to Andy Lazur, Professor at the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, “About 31–35 percent of the world's seafood supply is now farm-raised.” And scientists are working to mitigate the growing industry's ecological impact.

Because some farm species, such as salmon, eat other fish, raising them puts pressure on the world's fishing stocks. According to Lazur, “Emphasis in the last decade has been on finding plant protein alternatives to alleviate the dependence” on other fish, and that has met with success.

In addition, farmed fish are more concentrated than fish living in the wild—sometimes 25,000 fish dwell in a single acre. Although keeping large numbers of fish in one location produces a lot of waste, Lazur says, “We're able to collect the solids and use biological filters to basically reuse water.” That solid material can be used as fertilizer or compost for land crops.

On many fish farms, aquaculture operators use drugs to manage parasites and illnesses. Lazur notes that foreign sources, such as shrimp producers in Vietnam, are often eager to explore ways of tending their crops that can reduce or eliminate the need for drugs.

In Maryland, fish farming traditionally has been devoted to four species: hybrid striped bass (a cross between the rockfish and white bass), tilapia (a tropical fish brought in from the Middle East and Africa that adapts very well to indoor conditions), native yellow perch, and rainbow trout.

Right now, Maryland producers also work with koi, goldfish, shellfish, and ornamental plants, which have established markets. An emerging market, notes Lazur, are clams and oysters—not a big industry in Maryland now, but “it potentially could be.” Lazur recommends that people who “are looking to get into it really need to first develop a comprehensive and realistic business plan” before diving into the market. But Lazur believes that potential aquaculture entrepreneurs who want to raise shellfish just might prosper.