Chesapeake dead zone covers 40% of bay; crab fishery declared federal disaster
By Andy Sullivan REEDVILLE, Virginia (Reuters) – It doesn’t look like a disaster area. Crab boats dart back and forth on this inlet of the Chesapeake Bay as they have for generations. On the shore, million-dollar vacation homes catch the morning sun. But watermen aren’t pulling blue crabs out of the Bay this winter. After years of decline, the U.S. Commerce Department declared the fishery a federal disaster last September and Maryland and Virginia shut it down until spring. … But water quality remains poor and is not likely to improve without substantial changes in the landscape, Sidwell says. "It would take quite an effort to get it up to ‘fair’ water quality," he says. On its journey to the Chesapeake, water from Sligo Creek mingles with runoff from farms and sewage treatment plans. Nitrogen and phosphorus in that runoff feed massive algae blooms that suck oxygen out of the water each summer, killing clams and worms that provide the blue crab with food and aquatic grasses that give it shelter. Last year, the "dead zone" covered 40 percent of the Bay. Not surprisingly, crabs have suffered. The 2007 catch was the worst in recorded history, and last year the catch was even worse in Virginia and only slightly better in Maryland. With fewer crabs in the Bay, watermen now routinely catch far more than the 46 percent that scientists say is the upper limit to maintain a healthy population. … And he’s seen mansions sprout along the shoreline, their lawns fertilized with the very chemicals that are choking the Bay. "Grass as green as you’ve ever seen in your life, looks like it’s painted on," he says. …
