A Dwindling Catch - Part 1

Oyster fishermen in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay struggle despite a 14-year/$58 million program to save the oyster population.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• oysters
• oyster
• recovery
• partnership

[strikenetter]

its water quality and not fishermen destroying our seafood. all people are destroying the water and the habitat for our seafood. the fishermen are just easier to blame than such a big subject such as pollution!

[airricksreloaded]

I live in the area this is occurring in.. and its very sad.. and yes the effort has been very much publicized around here

[filitalian]

"That isn't the problem. The trouble is that there are so many states whose water ends up in the Chesapeake" <- There all part of the CB watershed, it extends all the way up into Pennsylvania

[shadowkitty56]

A smarter approach would be placing a moratorium on certain kinds of fishing to allow numbers to grow faster. It would also be cool if they thought to start up businesses that farm mussels (other filter feeders that can live in the bay) to help the oystermen in short term. It would be smart to restock a more diverse array of species that once were more prevalent in the bay & are better for ecosystem building: shad, eel, etc.

But of course, they won't. Cause Congress sucks.

[shadowkitty56]

@filitalian The truth is that it is going to take an act of Congress to put things right. You can't have six or seven states running six or seven different programs and expect a cohesive result. It is going to take a large sum of money, and new tactics to get 'er going the right way: oysters aren't the only filter feeders that can live in that bay. A smart approach would be to allow for mussels and clams too.

[shadowkitty56]

@filitalian That isn't the problem. The trouble is that there are so many states whose water ends up in the Chesapeake, so many cities: Baltimore is on the Patapsco, Philadelphia is on the Susquehanna, DC is on the Potomac, plus, worst of all, there is a lot of agricultural runoff coming from the farmland as far west as the mountains and as far north as central PA!

[filitalian]

@Wcoltd ya true about the nitrification. Too many ppl moving to the CB watershed for environmental projects to keep up I guess.

[Wcoltd]

Besides oyster cultivation, there really isn't a whole lot of oyster fishing going on where I live. (maybe its different in other areas of the bay) and I agree fishing certainly doesn't help the oysters to grow back, but it is a small fraction of the deaths that occur due to nitrification. During oyster kills its not unusual to have entire beaches covered in oyster shells (not fun to walk on).

[filitalian]

@Wcoltd It's not a black and white(polar) issue. It's a combination of both estuary pollution, like too much fertilizer runoff, protists, and overfishing that's exacerbating rebound in oyster population. booya

[Wcoltd]

The issue has been studied extensively by the Chesepeake Bay Foundation. the cause of the pollution is primarily due to excessive nitrogen pollution from sewage, cattle, nitrogen seepage from agriculture and urbanization. The CBF publish an annual State of the Bay report.

[coreman24680]

and if they did that,so they should stop fishing and de pollute the pond

[Wcoltd]

The problem isn't really overfishing, it has to do with algae blooms, the algae takes up all the oxygen and suffocates the oysters. Even if they stop fishing for 10 years they won't come back.