Environment Under Pressure

The Chesapeake has deep rooted historical and ecological significance to Americans. The area was where the first British colonies were founded as the bay gave access and shelter, as well as plentiful natural resources. The Native Americans taught the settlers how to grow corn and what to fish for. Most of the towns on the shores were founded around the fishing industries and still hold a great emphasis on the sea.

The explosion of population in the last century has put great pressure on the ecology of The Bay. Each town has its own maritime museum, and each tells the same story. As the population grew, more fish, crabs and oysters were harvested. At the same time, more fertilisers and sewerage ran into the water. It was not until the 1960s that treatment works began to remove the nitrates from the sewerage, but already the increased nutrients in the water had led to more severe algal blooms and less aquatic vegetation in the waters. Around Solomons Isle, the submerged aquatic vegetation has been recorded as receding through the second half of the last century down to nothing in the late 1980s, and it has yet to recover. Other museums cite a drop in the oyster population to a mere 1% of that recorded a century ago.

Small scale fishing fleet on The Chesapeake

The 1960s also saw increased use of pesticides including DDT. These almost wiped out the osprey population before they were banned. Even the “beautiful swimmers”, the native blue crabs, are under threat from alien European green crabs which compete for food and habitat.

However, it isn’t all bad news. The environmental issues are much better understood now and the public are better educated. The Smithsonian has an environmental research center on the Rhode River and monitors the ecology there. The ospreys are back in abundance, oyster fishing is on the increase and the Bay continues to provide more crabs for human consumption than any other body of water in the world. Sewerage treatment is state of the art and residents are encouraged to limit their use of fertilisers on their lawns and to avoid flushing toxins such as medicines down their toilets.

Osprey fishing on Rhodes River reserve

The shores of the Bay are home to several major US cities – Washington, Annapolis, Baltimore and then joined via the C&D Canal to Delaware and Philadelphia – but also still hold hundreds of miles of true undeveloped wilderness. It seems that here, man and nature can exists side by side.