Bay Grasses

Underwater grasses made robust gains in the Chesapeake Bay last year, scientists report, reaching their greatest extent in seven years. But the submerged vegetation, which provides shelter and food for fish and crabs and helps clear the water, is still less than half what it once was. Reporting on the results of the Chesapeake Bay Program's annual aerial survey, scientists said bay grasses spread across 12 percent more of the Chesapeake's bottom, covering...

The protective underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay have dropped to their lowest levels since 2006, according to the latest report from Maryland and Virginia scientists. The scientists from the Chesapeake Bay Program, a regional partnership, view the grasses as a key measure of bay health because they provide shelter for fish and crabs, protect the shoreline and keep the water clear. The program measures the grasses annually from the Susquehanna Flats to the mouth of the bay, as well as those in the system's rivers.

WASHINGTON - Underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay have reached the highest level since researchers began tracking them in 1978, federal officials announced yesterday. Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program said a survey last year found 85,252 acres of grasses baywide, 27 percent more than was found the previous year. About 15 percent of the aerial surveys could not be completed because of flight restrictions imposed on small planes after Sept. 11 last year.

A bit of good news - the vast, grassy Susquehanna Flats apparently weathered Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in good shape. Scientists conducting their annual checkup of the bay's underwater grasses found the lush bed at the mouth of the Susquehanna River largely intact when they examined aerial photos taken in late November. Researchers had feared for upper bay grasses, and the Flats especially, after seeing the heavy rains and flooding produced by Irene in late August followed by Lee in early September.  After Lee in particular, the raging Susquehanna flushed an estimated four million tons of sediment out into the bay from behind Conowingo Dam.  Some predicted the storms would deal a serious setback to the bay's health, just as it was showing some signs of improvement.

Underwater bay grasses had a banner year in the upper Chesapeake Bay in 2004, with the largest increases in and around the Susquehanna River. The multistate Chesapeake Bay Program released results of its annual bay grass survey yesterday, and the findings confirmed what scientists have seen on boat trips along Cecil, Harford and Baltimore county rivers: Multiple species of dense grasses have returned to areas that had been barren for many years....

In rare good news for the Chesapeake Bay, scientists reported Wednesday that underwater grasses made significant gains last year in the beleaguered estuary, growing thickly enough in the upper bay to visibly clear the water while continuing to rebound in the lower bay. Aerial surveys found that the grasses had spread across nearly 12,000 additional acres of bottom last year, an increase of 18 percent from 2007, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program, the...

CAMBRIDGE -- From a cramped office on the Eastern Shore, researchers Laura Murray and her husband, Michael Kemp, have spent more than two decades studying the decline of underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay and measuring what that means to the health of the estuary. All their work was lost yesterday in the flash of an early-morning fire that destroyed twin trailers that housed their offices, their computers, their research papers and irreplaceable data. "I just feel hollow," said Murray, after surveying charred rubble at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental and Estuarine Study.

Seeds buried in the mud of Chesapeake rivers for as long as 2,000 years show that human beings, not forces of nature, are to blame for the destructive disappearance of the bay's lush underwater grasses. That's the conclusion of a new study by two Johns Hopkins University scientists who dug deep into 12 bay rivers and creeks, bringing up long cylinders of sediment deposited on the bottom over the past two millennia. Buried in the sediment are pollen, seeds and other clues that tell experts when and how some major changes took place in the bay's environment.

Chesapeake Bay grasses suffered their worst decline in 20 years after a torrent of rains last spring and summer washed huge amounts of sediment and nutrients into the water, according to a report released yesterday. The findings, which come from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science's study of submerged aquatic vegetation in the bay from May to October last year, show that the grasses decreased 30 percent throughout the tidal bay, and 41 percent in Maryland. The report marks a setback for the multistate push to restore the grasses -- and with them crab and fisheries habitats -- by 2010.

Maryland needs "swan-free zones" to protect rare birds and bay grasses from being overwhelmed by huge flocks of mute swans, a state task force says. To keep the birds in check, the task force recommended fencing off some vulnerable tracts of shoreline, harassing swans in those areas with dogs, fireworks or loud noises, and tampering with eggs in the nest so they don't hatch. As a last resort, the state should consider shooting some mute swans, the task force recommended. But the panel, set up by the Department of Natural Resources, ruled out a public hunting season for the big birds, which resemble their native relatives, tundra swans and trumpeter swans.

The Chesapeake Bay's underwater grasses decreased 7 percent in 2010, according to a report released Thursday by the Chesapeake Bay Program. The aerial survey by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science found grasses covered 79,675 acres of the bay and tidal rivers, down from 85,914 acres in 2009. Despite the decline, scientists said, it is the third-highest baywide acreage estimate since 1984. The grasses are a measure of bay health because the plants serve as food and habitat, absorb excess nutrients and reduce shoreline erosion, the program said.

Underwater grasses made robust gains in the Chesapeake Bay last year, scientists report, reaching their greatest extent in seven years. But the submerged vegetation, which provides shelter and food for fish and crabs and helps clear the water, is still less than half what it once was. Reporting on the results of the Chesapeake Bay Program's annual aerial survey, scientists said bay grasses spread across 12 percent more of the Chesapeake's bottom, covering...

Maryland's coastal bays - where many beach vacationers fish, boat and admire the sunsets - are in better shape than the Chesapeake Bay, but their health is slipping amid growing pollution, a new scientific report finds. A first-ever report card issued Monday by the Maryland Coastal Bays Program and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science gives a C-plus to the string of fragile lagoons separating Ocean City from the mainland. Conditions range from good in the southern bays bordering Assateague National Seashore to poor in bays increasingly lined with summer and retirement homes.

Mute swans are among the most beautiful, graceful animals in the world, yet Maryland is brutally killing them. Where once 3,500 mute swans graced the Chesapeake Bay, systematic slaughter by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has reduced their numbers to about 500. Why would anyone kill these gorgeous animals? The DNR claims mute swans are an invasive species that upsets the local ecosystem of Chesapeake Bay by eating bay grasses. But these few swans have a negligible impact when compared to other factors affecting the bay. If DNR were really concerned about the health of the bay ecosystem, it would do more to stop the 500 million pounds of pollutants poured into the bay by factory farms, urban runoff and sewage treatment plants every year.

In rare good news for the Chesapeake Bay, scientists reported Wednesday that underwater grasses made significant gains last year in the beleaguered estuary, growing thickly enough in the upper bay to visibly clear the water while continuing to rebound in the lower bay. Aerial surveys found that the grasses had spread across nearly 12,000 additional acres of bottom last year, an increase of 18 percent from 2007, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program, the...

The Chesapeake Bay is in poor health and didn't get any better last year, according to the chief government program charged with restoring it. In an unusually frank status report, the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program concluded that the estuary "continues to have poor water quality, degraded habitats and low populations of many species of fish and shellfish." Despite some "small successes," the agency gave the bay's health a grade of 38 percent, with 100 percent representing a fully restored ecosystem.

They came to the water's edge carrying aluminum pans that seemed perfect for a sheet of lasagna but were filled instead with a marshy mix of sand, soil and grass. Some slid into too-big chest waders and slipped into the creek, where a biologist dressed like a frogman scooped a handful of brown and green and disappeared beneath the water's surface.One wild celery plant planted, 99,999 to go.That might seem like a lot of celery grass, or it might seem like a pittance when set against the vast waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Either way, the elementary, middle and high school students who yesterday brought their classroom-grown seedlings to Baltimore County's Rocky Point Park were literally delving beneath the surface to learn a lesson in save-the-bay ecology.

John Neukam has been catching crabs in pots near the Middle River for decades. But this year, the crabs have been dying in the water, suffocated by a bright green algae bloom that is choking off oxygen and worrying watermen and recreational boaters. "You crab all week, you get a bushel and a half in your live box, and they die," said Neukam, after checking his pots yesterday morning. "I've been here all my life - 64 years - and we've only had this one other time, when fertilizer from a farm seeped into the cove."

When President Bush signed an executive order in St. Michaels recently making it federal policy to conserve striped bass for the recreational, economic and environmental benefit of present and future generations, his action recognized the importance of recreational fishing to conservation and called for a change in how policymakers value our fisheries. Maryland's elected officials and professionals at the Department of Natural Resources would be wise to consider the benefits of prohibiting the sale of striped bass by designating the state fish a gamefish.