Definition Paper

The Chesapeake Bay is a landmark of Maryland as well as an important local ecosystem. The Bay spans 200 miles and is home to over 3,600 species of plant, fish and other animal life. (UMCES) The bay also provides jobs and lively hoods to the people who live on its shores – The Chesapeake is an integral part of the Maryland ecosystem and economy.

Unfortunately, the health of the bay has declined over the last 100 years. Sources such as farm fertilizer; animal waste and water treatment discharge are flushed into the Chesapeake during heavy spring rains, causing an excess of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. After having entered the bay, these nutrients contribute to the runaway growth of algae. (UMCES) Scientists say that this leads to an unhealthy chain reaction within the bay.

“When the algae die, their remains sink to the bottom of the bay, where they are consumed by bacteria. As they dine on algae, the bacteria utilize dissolved oxygen in the water. This leads to a condition called hypoxia, or depletion of oxygen. As this process continues through the spring and summer, the lack of oxygen turns vast stretches of the Chesapeake into dead zones. Hypoxia sometimes results in fish kills”(UMCES).

So what has been done about it? Great strides have been made in the improvement of the bay over the last few years. A provision of the clean water act known as the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is the “maximum amount of pollution a body of water listed officially as "impaired" can accommodate and still meet water quality standards” (CBF, “What is”). In late 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency released enforceable pollution limits on nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in the bay. The 6 bay states and the District of Columbia then published their plans to meet 60 percent of those limits by 2017, and 100 percent of those limits by 2025 (CBF, Blueprint).

The 60 percent deadline is right around the corner, and in early 2014 the 7 jurisdictions released two-year milestones and progress reports. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, “Maryland has exceeded 2013 milestone goals for five of the seven practices examined”(CBF, Blueprint). According to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins researchers and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, oxygen-starved dead zones are shrinking. This decrease of zones is no coincidence, according to University of Maryland Scientists. “’By looking at existing data, we have been able to link decreasing hypoxia to a reduction in the nutrient load in the bay’ said study co-author Michael Kemp, an ecologist with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Horn Point Laboratory”(UMCES).

Does this mean that our work is getting close to done? Not exactly. Although there have been great improvements in the health of the Bay, we cannot stop now. The Bay still faces many issues, and we need to continue working hard in order to meet our 2025 goals.

According to the 2014 State of The Bay report released by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the bay is slowly improving, but we still have work to do. Many indicators of Bay health have improved, such as dissolved oxygen and water clarity (CBF, “State of the Bay”). However, Nitrogen in the Bay is at the same level it was in 2012, and phosphorus levels have actually increased since 2012 (CBF, “State of the Bay). Other indicators, such as Blue Crab life, are showing signs of being threatened as well.

The amount of female blue crabs in the bay that are capable of spawning is showing record lows. According to a study released last year “there were only 68.5 million females old enough to spawn, far below the 215 million that officials say are needed to overcome natural threats,” and that the Crab “is more threatened now than at any time since biologists started to record numbers in the late 1940s” (Fears). Blue Crab as well as Striped Bass are not doing well, and they act as metrics that indicate a system that is still dangerously out of balance (CBF, “State of the Bay”).

While we have improved by quite a bit since when we started, we still have a far road to go before 2025. A lot can still be done to improve the state of the bay, and it is up to the people of Maryland to take action. I encourage you to look into the topic yourself! there is a wealth of information available on the internet, and the hyperlinks included in this post can bring to reports and articles about how the bay is doing. If you'd like to see my official Works Cited Page, go here.