Birds Over the Bay

A nesting pair of osprey,  reunited after separating for the winter and living it up down ol' South America way.

It's no secret that I love the Chesapeake Bay. And while nothing beats getting out on the water, sometimes there are a lot of exciting things happening right above it as well. Back in March while on an Alternative Break trip with the University of Maryland, I was lucky enough to catch a brief encounter that took place over Parrish Creek in Shady Side, Maryland. The resident osprey (Pandion haliaetus) couple had returned from their winter vacation, and made their way to their regular nesting platform. Lucky for me, they weren't the only raptors around that day.

Things I Learned This Semester #2

Callinectes sapidus, photographed at the Maryland Science Center.

Back in 2008, Maryland Governor Martin O'Mally and Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, at the advice of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, made the difficult decision to pass regulations regarding the harvesting of Atlantic blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) in the Chesapeake Bay.  By shortening the harvesting season, putting limits on the number of bushels allowed to be collected, and curbing the catching of female crabs, they hoped to allow the record low populations to rebound.  Well, good news everyone! Four years later, and the crab population has reached its highest levels in the last 19 years!  A dredge survey made public back in April shows a population rise of 66%, of which 587 million individuals are juveniles.  This is great news for the crabs, but also for the watermen that make a living off of them, and for those of us who love picking a good crab on a late summer evening.  Sustainable fisheries management for the win!

Blogging on the Bay (Part 2)

Sunrise over the Chesapeake Bay, taken on the beach in front of the Philip Merrill Center.

Although I'm a little farther from the Bay at this point, it always remains very close to my heart.  So I just wanted to say a few more words on some of the issues affecting the Chesapeake Bay watershed today.  I know the last time I wrote (which was quite a while ago - my apologies) I spoke of oysters, and some of the problems they've been having over the last hundred years or so.  Disease, poor water quality, and over harvesting are three of the big culprits. This time, I want to home in a little on the poor water quality issue.

Blogging on the Bay (Part 1)

An oyster bed at low tide. Notice the thousands of individual oysters encrusted on top of one another. Photo taken by JohnCub, from Wikimedia Commons.

The Chesapeake Bay is home to a wonderful variety of plants and animals. One of the invertebrates that makes a home here is the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica.  This bivalve mollusk, which was once abundant in the Bay, has faced many hardships in the recent past. Over-harvesting, poor water quality from over nitrification and pollution, and in increase in sedimentation from runoff has caused populations to decline to less than 2% of their historical numbers. This is a problem for the oysters, and other denizens of the Bay.

Spring Break! Again!

I'm sure that many of you have noticed that my posting here has been intermittent in the last month or so. That is in part because I've been gearing up for another trip with the University of Maryland's Alternative Spring Break program. This time around, me and a group of eager students will be headed to the Chesapeake Bay Foundations headquarters at the Philip Merrill Center for the week to camp out and help clean up the bay! I don't know what my internet situation will be like when we arrive, but I'm going to try to keep active on Twitter via my mobile, posting pictures and info along the way if I can't do it here on the blog. Feel free to keep tabs on us at the official ASB Chesapeake 2011 blog as well.

**UPDATE 30 MARCH**

Photos of the week are starting to flow onto my Flickr account. Check out the set here!

Cold Fish in the Chesapeake Bay

Dead spot and croaker on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Stevensonville, Maryland. Photo by Charles Poukish, from the Associated Press.

There have been several reports since the beginning of the new year regarding the mass deaths of animals across the globe. Starting with the death of around 5,000 red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) in Arkansas on New year's Eve, media outlets have been quick to pick up on other stories of other mass bird deaths and fish kills. Not only that, but some have been quick to suggest conspiracy theories - from toxic chemicals, to U.F.O.'s, to the coming apocalypse - as the reason for these mass deaths. I'm not going to touch any of that, or perpetuate the notion that these events are in any way, shape, or form related to one another, because they are not. But I do want to talk about one of the instances that hits a little closer to home for me, and its real cause: a recent mass fish kill on the Chesapeake Bay, and its link to global climate change.