Fish
CHESAPEAKE 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 MoreThe devastating Chesapeake blue crab collapse
Other factors affecting crab numbers include a failure to restore bay grasses (crab nurseries), polluted waters and invasive species. But the harsh reality is that the increasing harvest pressure triggered by astronomical crab prices is the only readily controllable fix to prevent an imminent crab collapse. However, all harvest restrictions — both existing and new — are rendered meaningless in Maryland because of nearly nonexistent enforcement. Tragically, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has chosen a laissez-faire approach to enforcement, allowing crabbers to act with impunity.
Read MoreIt’s time for DNR to restrict the commercial crab harvest
The time has come for DNR to restrict commercial harvest by adopting strict daily bushel limits for males and greatly decreasing the bushel limits for females, reducing the number of crab pots used, shortening the crabbing season, closing crabbing two days each week, and adopting a quota system for each commercial crabber as with rockfish.
Read MoreVa. Rep. Goodlatte Aims to Quash Bay Cleanup
(Posted by Dawn Stoltzfus.)
As has been rumored for many months — yesterday Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would undercut the clean water act and essentially quash the multi-state Chesapeake Bay “TMDL” pollution diet cleanup process. This would be devastating, as many Bay scientists and advocates are hopeful that the TMDL and each State’s Watershed Implementation Plans could finally provide a solution to making our waters, and the Bay, fishable and swimmable again.
Read More‘We Must Preserve an Economic Asset’
(This ninth installment in our series, What’s It Going to Take?, looks at how the environmental community can regain the initiative and build the political will necessary to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.)
In this exclusive interview with the Bay Action Plan, Chesapeake Bay Program Director Nick DiPasquale says that the costs of cleaning the Chesapeake Bay are significant, but manageable.
“No time is a good time when you’re talking about trying to implement very costly pollution control measures,” DiPasquale said. “But when you spread that cost over the life of a project… you find that the cost to individual households is a few dollars a month. Compare it to cellphone or cable costs, it puts things into perspective.”
Read MoreProtecting Forests and Increasing Buffers to Restore the Bay and Local Rivers
(Posted by Dawn Stoltzfus.)
With all the recent focus on the Chesapeake Bay TMDL and local WIPs, here’s something that may have flown under the radar of Marylanders following Bay restoration efforts: the Maryland Sustainable Forestry Council is developing a set of legislative proposals to achieve a “No Net Loss” of forests in Maryland, due by December 1, 2011. It seems like we could easily be losing sight of the forest for the trees!
Last week, former Maryland State Senator Gerald Winegrad testified before the Council. As Senator Winegrad notes in his testimony [link], “the Sustainable Forestry Council can greatly assist in efforts to restore the Bay by focusing on nonpoint source pollution as forests and wetlands are the greatest protectors of the Bay from pollutants.”
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