Patapsco River Archives - Saving Seafood

Scientists: Record abundance of underwater grasses shows Chesapeake Bay initiatives are working

April 25, 2018 — Underwater grasses that provide vital places for fish and crabs to live and hide from predators covered more than 100,000 acres of the Chesapeake Bay in 2017 — the most ever recorded in a 34-year-old aerial survey, scientists said Tuesday.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science found 104,843 acres of grasses across the estuary, the first time since it began its survey in 1984 that vegetative coverage surpassed the 100,000-acre threshold.

It was a third straight year that grass acreage grew, gaining by 5 percent from 2016 to 2017.

The Patapsco River was among the areas with the strongest grass growth. Acreage jumped more than three times, from 3 acres in 2016 to 14 acres in 2017.

Officials with the Chesapeake Bay Program, the federal office that released the data, said the survey results show that its work with bay watershed states to limit pollution is working. The federal-state partnership adopted a “blueprint” in 2010 to reverse decades of environmental degradation and restore the bay’s health by 2025.

Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun

Maryland Dam Removal Receives Approval

April 8, 2016 — The Board of Public Works today granted approval for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to move forward with the Bloede Dam removal project. The department and its partners have been working for several years on a comprehensive, cost-effective plan to remove the public safety hazard and fish obstruction on the Patapsco River in Patapsco Valley State Park.

“After approximately five years of very thorough and thoughtful planning, in consultation with affected stakeholders, we are thrilled that the wheels are officially in motion to remove Bloede Dam,” Natural Resources Assistant Secretary Daryl Anthony said. “This project is testament to the power of partnership. American Rivers, along with our federal, state and county partners, have been instrumental in helping us to secure funding, work with the community and other stakeholders, and identify the technical resources necessary to enhance the Patapsco River.”

Today’s approval authorizes procurement authority to the department, as well as the transferring of funds to the department for dam removal, and $1 million in general-obligation bonds to fund an agreement with American Rivers for construction management.

See the full story at The Fishing Wire

Maryland Wants to Take shells for oyster project from prime fishing reef

MARYLAND – March 22, 2016 — Seeking to counter a shortage of oyster habitat in the Chesapeake Bay, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is renewing a controversial bid to dredge old shells that have built up over centuries from an ancient reef southeast of Baltimore. Reviving a plan abandoned in 2009, the DNR has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to take 5 million bushels of shells from Man-O-War shoal just beyond the mouth of the Patapsco River. Ultimately, though, the state wants to barge away 30 million bushels, or about a third of the 456-acre reef.

The shells are needed to replace or augment oyster reefs worn down by harvesting and buried under an accumulation of silt, the DNR said. State officials said they would use much of the dredged shell in future large-scale, restoration projects. Some would also go to help the public fishery, though and to assist oyster farmers growing bivalves on leased plots of the Bay and its tributaries.

But the DNR’s request is drawing flak from conservationists, fishermen and even some watermen who might benefit.

Read the full story at ODU Magazine.