Pocomoke River

SHELLTOWN -- State officials reopened yesterday a 4.5-mile stretch of the Pocomoke River on the lower Eastern Shore for fishing, crabbing and other recreational uses."

From the first day of practice in the stifling heat of August, the players for Marriotts Ridge faced almost unprecedented expectations. The Mustangs entered the season as the three-time defending Class 2A state champions and this year's team had the challenge of trying to join Pocomoke, River Hill and Wilde Lake as the only boys soccer programs in state history to win four consecutive titles. Marriotts Ridge responded in a most remarkable way by finishing the season undefeated and winning another state championship Saturday night with a 4-0 victory over Queen Anne's at UMBC Stadium.

As state health officials deal with what they suspect is a reappearance of a toxic microorganism that has killed and disfigured thousands of fish in the Pocomoke River, anglers miles to the north are reporting fish with strikingly similar sores.On the Chester River on Sunday, a man caught 15 rockfish bearing gaping sores.In a phone call this week to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, he also mentioned recent medical problems that match some of those experienced by Shelltown-area watermen who became sick after contact with the Pocomoke River.

I was gratified to see in today's paper that the Assateague Coast Keeper and Waterkeeper Alliance had filed a lawsuit against Perdue for polluting the Chesapeake Bay via the Pocomoke River (" Perdue, Md. chicken farm sued," Mar. 3). I was, however, shocked to read that this lawsuit is "the first to target Maryland's chicken industry for water pollution." Is this correct? No other environmental group, like the long-established Chesapeake Bay Foundation, or state agencies, Maryland Department of Natural Resources or the attorney general, have ever taken on these giant polluters like Perdue or Tyson?

SHELLTOWN -- For the first time in four days, the state yesterday received no reports of fish kills on the lower Pocomoke River, where thousands of fish have died in the past week."

The tide of devastation caused by the Pocomoke River fish kills has washed ashore in the Baltimore area, where seafood wholesalers and retailers said sales of fresh fish have dropped sharply because of public distrust."

Take away the boardwalk fries, the crowded streets, the saltwater taffy, the "I'm With Stupid" T-shirts, and what do you have? Pocomoke River State Park. Granted, there are some other trade-offs involved in swapping Ocean City for the greater Pocomoke City metropolitan area. But if you didn't get around to planning the specifics of a late-summer camping vacation (that is, lodging) until now and would still like to fish and hike, with a day trip or two to mingle with the boardwalk hordes, then the state park 25 miles south of Ocean City could be the answer.

The morning sun filtered through the forest canopy like a stage light, drawing our attention to another bend in the river. We were making our way slowly upstream from Porters Crossing in a shallow channel at times not much wider than our canoes. Except for a woodpecker off in the distance, the only sound to be heard was the whoosh of paddles breaking the water.Were we experiencing the river much differently than the Pocomoke Indians who lived here three centuries ago? Probably not, although they were likely on the river searching for food.

Pocomoke City will host its 16th annual Cypress Festival along the Pocomoke River in Cypress Park, Friday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.Free entertainment will be provided by cloggers, fiddlers, bagpipers, square dancers and country and rock bands. Handcrafted items and food will be on sale. The annual Pocomoke River Canoe Challenge will feature participants paddling the 12 smiles between Snow Hill and Cypress Park, where an awards ceremony will be held on Saturday afternoon.

In response to fish-lesion concerns along the Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will survey Maryland recreational and commercial anglers about their catches beginning this week.Watermen began pulling in fish bearing deep, gaping lesions last fall in the Pocomoke River near Shelltown in Maryland's lower Eastern Shore.Concern deepened when the Maryland Watermen's Association found that an unusually high amount -- 20 percent to 30 percent -- of fish caught in the Pocomoke River this spring had those lesions.

Environmental groups filed suit in federal court Tuesday accusing an Eastern Shore chicken farm and poultry giant Perdue Farms with polluting waters that flow into the Chesapeake Bay. The Assateague Coastkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance contend that harmful levels of bacteria and nutrient pollution are flowing from a drainage ditch on the farm into a branch of the Pocomoke River, a bay tributary. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, comes two months after the environmental groups formally warned Hudson Farms in Berlin and Perdue that it would sue them for water pollution violations after spotting an uncovered pile of what the groups said appeared to be chicken manure draining into the ditch.

Take away the boardwalk fries, the crowded streets, the saltwater taffy, the "I'm With Stupid" T-shirts, and what do you have? Pocomoke River State Park. Granted, there are some other trade-offs involved in swapping Ocean City for the greater Pocomoke City metropolitan area. But if you didn't get around to planning the specifics of a late-summer camping vacation (that is, lodging) until now and would still like to fish and hike, with a day trip or two to mingle with the boardwalk hordes, then the state park 25 miles south of Ocean City could be the answer.

Adventure should be shared. What would Lewis be without Clark? Mason minus Dixon? Hillary sans Norgay? Even that adventure stud Indiana Jones didn't go solo, although Harrison Ford once played Han Solo. But I digress. So when it came time to compete in the Maryland Park Service's new Park Quest contest, I expected to be at the helm of Team Spartacus, with three trusty friends by my side. Wishful thinking. Commitments - prior, last-minute and fabricated - reduced the hearty team to me. With apologies to Kirk Douglas, I was Spartacus.

An unexpected result of this summer's drought was an explosion of toxic algae linked to at least 15 fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay since July, according to a University of Maryland scientist. The microscopic organism, called karlodinium, is a peculiar bean-shaped predator with two whip-like arms. It thrives in the salinity that results when there is little rainfall and more ocean water enters the bay, said Allen Place, a biochemist at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.

ON THE POCOMOKE RIVER -- Joseph Fehrer Jr. paddled through dirt-black water and past islands of gnarled roots to an ancient cypress tree. On one side of the colossus stretched 1,000 acres of farmland where a developer plans to build 2,170 homes, a grocery store, a movie theater and shops that would triple the population of Snow Hill. On the other side of the tree, across the Pocomoke River, sits a 9,300-acre nature preserve that Fehrer's father helped create to protect this rare and vanishing cypress swamp.

Driving across the flat farmlands of the Eastern Shore can seem boring, if not completely frustrating, on a busy summer day. Perhaps it is the price we feel we must pay to reach "more scenic" destinations such as Ocean City. But as the cornfields zoom by and the tires rumble over the hot highway asphalt, natural treasures are passed hardly noticed in the swamps and wetlands that hide beyond the trees and farms. The Pocomoke River, only a short diversion from the course to the sea, is such a treasure.

Eastern Shore watermen got more bad news about water quality yesterday, as high bacteria levels forced state officials to expand an area of Pocomoke Sound that is off limits to the harvesting of oysters and clams.The restriction, effective Sept. 1, closely follows the state's unrelated six-day closure of the lower Pocomoke River this month, when thousands of fish were killed, in part, because of a microorganism called Pfiesteria piscicida in the water.In yesterday's action, the Department of the Environment ordered a halt to shellfish harvesting in the Pocomoke Sound after routine water sampling showed unsafe levels of fecal coliform -- contamination that state officials blamed on wildlife and other natural sources.

THE PECULIAR conditions of the lower Pocomoke River that seemed to explain its susceptibility to an elusive fish-eating microorganism may not be so peculiar after all.Biologists began yesterday to monitor several other Chesapeake Bay tributaries for signs of Pfiesteria piscicida, after closing a second waterway (in Somerset County) to recreation and fishing because of potential health problems tied to the organism's suspected role in fish morbidity there.While scientists and state officials insist that there is no widespread problem in the bay, they are finally extending their search for the cause of fish sores, human ailments and fish kills in waters outside the lower Pocomoke.

The algae Pfiesteria, blamed for memory loss among watermen during a 1997 outbreak in a Chesapeake Bay tributary, does not harm people routinely exposed to it at low levels, a study released yesterday concludes. The research by a team of scientists led by Dr. J. Glenn Morris, chairman of preventive medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, found that the microorganism is common throughout the Chesapeake Bay, from the Patapsco River near Baltimore to the Pocomoke River on the Eastern Shore.

Art in Bethesda The lowdown -- Instead of basking in the television's glow of Jason or Freddy Krueger marathons this Friday the 13th, take advantage of downtown Bethesda's monthly art walk. Showcasing work from 13 galleries, the event encourages patrons to browse the collections, shop for artwork and enjoy free refreshments. Beginning in March, free guided tours will be offered. If you go -- The 2006 Bethesda Art Walks kick off tomorrow night. The galleries welcome visitors between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. For more information and a list of participating galleries, call 301-215-6660 or visit be thesda.