Chesapeake Bay
AS CHESAPEAKE RESTORATION CRASHES, GREENWASHING PERVADES
Let’s examine the Legacy Act’s details: First, a person who has a tidal fish license or commercial channa license and harvests and processes finfish on a vessel by ikejime for direct sale to restaurants need not have a food establishment license. Secondly, minor changes are made regarding the procedures for adoption of fishery management plans. Nothing is included that would better conserve crashing fish and crab populations.
Read MoreAn Open Letter to the Chesapeake Bay Conservation Community
An Open Letter to the Chesapeake Bay Conservation Community By Gerald Winegrad May 5, 2025 Despite the gross failure of the Bay states to achieve the dictates of the Chesapeake TMDL by 2025 after being given 15 years to do, there have been no sanctions. Nor have the EPA or Bay states taken any new…
Read MoreA SECOND TRUMP TERM WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE | COMMENTARY
In Trump’s previous four-year reign, Earthjustice sued to block the dismantling of environmental regulations 200 times and won 85% of their cases. I am ramping up my contributions to them, and if you care about our environment, you may want to do so, too.
Read MoreCHESAPEAKE OYSTER SANCTUARIES HOLD PROMISE FOR RECOVERY | COMMENTARY
The sanctuary and aquaculture initiatives were vigorously opposed by oyster harvesters and the oyster industry. As they had for 140 years, they again fought any proposals that decreased public oyster grounds. Instead, they promoted the government system of paying to plant shell and seed oysters for them to harvest and sell. Such resistance has impeded the switch to aquaculture for 140 years despite the unambiguous evidence that aquaculture could produce an enormous quantity of oysters. This has been the case throughout the world as wild stocks crashed.
Read MoreGerald Winegrad: The sad state of the Chesapeake Bay and advocacy for its restoration
The main failure is not adequately controlling agricultural nutrients and sediment that are choking the bay system. Farmland covers two million acres of Maryland, 32% of its land mass. Farming is a leaky business, especially from the massive chicken industry growing about 600 million birds a year producing 1.6 million pounds of chicken litter, mostly poop.
Read MoreMy prescription for restoring Chesapeake Bay demands strong medicine!
This might be a Hail Mary pass, but it is time for policy makers to end the greenwashing and half-measures and adopt these proposals. Bay Restoration Prescription. The price of not doing so is a degraded Chesapeake with lurking flesh-eating diseases and dying fisheries…
Read More