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Chesapeake Bayโ€™s โ€˜dead zoneโ€™ to be smaller this summer, researchers say

June 30, 2021 โ€” The Chesapeake Bayโ€™s โ€œdead zone,โ€ the oxygen-starved blob of water that waxes and wanes each summer, is forecast to be smaller than average for a second consecutive year.

A consortium of research institutions announced June 23 that it expects the volume of this yearโ€™s dead zone to be 14% lower than average. In 2020, the zone was smaller than 80% of those monitored since surveying began in 1985.

The size of the summer dead zone is driven largely by how much excess nutrients flow off lawns and agricultural fields into the Bay during the preceding January to May, researchers say. Those nutrients โ€” nitrogen and phosphorus โ€” fuel explosive algae growth, triggering a chemical reaction that robs the water of oxygen as it dies back. The area is dubbed a โ€œdead zoneโ€ because of the lack of life found within it.

This year, those first five months were slightly drier than usual, causing river flows entering the Bay to be 13% below average. As a result, the Chesapeake received 19% less nitrogen pollution compared with the long-term average at monitoring stations along nine major tributaries.

Efforts to curb nutrient pollution in the Bayโ€™s 64,000-square-mile watershed also appear to have played a role in shrinking this yearโ€™s dead zone, scientists say. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has joined with Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia to implement a โ€œpollution dietโ€ for the Bay and its tributaries by 2025.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

University of Maryland environmental scientists give the Chesapeake Bay a C on health report

June 23, 2021 โ€” After two straight yearโ€™s of declines due to record rainfall in 2018, the Chesapeake Bayโ€™s health improved slightly in 2020, according to a report from the University of Marylandโ€™s Center for Environmental Science.

The centerโ€™s grade for the estuary ticked up from a C- back to a C. The entire watershed received a B- for the second straight year.

The grade is based on measurements of phosphorous, nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, water clarity, aquatic grasses and bottom-dwellers.

Officials dubbed the data a mixed bag. For instance, the bayโ€™s dissolved oxygen and nitrogen levels improved, but the scores for chlorophyll and phosphorous worsened. Water clarity, too, remains poor.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

University of Maryland receives $300,000 for blue crab research

July 31, 2020 โ€” U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Steny H. Hoyer, all D-Md., July 27 announced $299,963 in federal funding for the University of Maryland, College Park for research into a new processing technology that could enhance the competitiveness of the domestic blue crab industry. The funding comes from the 2020 Saltonstall-Kennedy Competitive Grants Program through the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

โ€œFew things are as iconic as the Chesapeake Bay blue crab, and its harvest is a cornerstone of Marylandโ€™s local economies. This grant will expand the competitiveness of domestically produced crab meat in the face of intense foreign competition, and will help unlock new markets for an important Maryland industry,โ€ said the lawmakers.

The U.S. blue crab industry has faced increasing competition from imported products, especially Venezuelan fresh pre-cooked crab, which has a longer shelf life. This has resulted in a major loss of market share for the Maryland seafood industry. This new high-pressure processing technology will extend shelf life of domestic crab products, while improving food safety and expanding market strategies among the seafood industry.

Read the full story at the Dorchester Star

MASSACHUSETTS: SouthCoast Man of the Year: Kevin Stokesbury continues to seek solutions to fishing industry challenges

December 31, 2018 โ€”  Itโ€™s pretty well known around these parts that homegrown research proved the ocean held more Atlantic sea scallops than federal regulators thought.

And a lot of folks know that the value of those succulent bivalves has made New Bedford the highest-grossing fishing port in America for 18 years running.

Starting in the late 1990s, Professor Kevin Stokesbury of the School for Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth, working with SMAST founding dean Brian Rothschild, developed a video technique to count scallops on the seafloor without harvesting or killing them.

Along the way, he pioneered a partnership with local fishermen.

Some fishermen say the research saved the New Bedford scallop industry. (Other observers point out that federal regulations protected the species at critical times.)

Read the full story at New Bedford Standard-Times

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