At least once a day, Eileen McLellan gets a phone call from a homeowner along the Chester River, wondering about the dead fish washing up under the dock or the funny color of the algae or just the strange smell of the water.
"They call me and ask if the river is dying," said McLellan, who is completing her first year as the Chester Riverkeeper, hired by the Chester River Association. "I tell them it's not dying, but it's very sick."
Around the Chesapeake Bay, zones of low dissolved oxygen are increasingly found far beyond the deep waters of the main channel. They're now reaching tributaries, where residents have rarely seen so much algae and so few crabs and fish.
"The dead zone problem we're seeing on the bay is equally bad in the Chesapeake Bay tributaries," said J. Charles Fox, a vice president for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "We don't have the same amount of data that we have in the main part of the bay, but the data we have are showing it's very bad."
The foundation -- which took reporters on a tour near Solomons last week to illustrate low dissolved oxygen in the bay -- followed up yesterday with a look at the bay's smaller tributaries, focusing on Weems Creek and the Severn River near Annapolis.
Scientists say dissolved oxygen is critical for survival of fish and crabs -- low levels can kill them or prompt them to flee to other areas.
Further illustrating this year's problems was a report yesterday by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources confirming the discovery of microcystin toxin in a blue-green algae bloom in the Sassafras River between Cecil and Kent counties.
The microcystin toxin irritates the skin of humans and can be fatal to animals if ingested. State officials said livestock and pets should be kept clear of the Sassafras and recommended that people who come into contact with river water wash off as soon as possible with fresh water.
It is the first discovery of the toxin in Maryland's bay tributaries since 2000. Tests of blue-green algae blooms in several other areas -- including the Bush River and Betterton Beach -- are still outstanding.
"In 2000, like this year, we had an abundance of rainfall, coupled with the nutrients that the rainfall brought into the river," said Peter Tango, a natural resource planner with DNR. He said toxin levels are "above the long-term chronic health and safety guidelines by the World Health Organization. It's not as high right now as it was in 2000, but it's not inconsequential, either."
