Any discussion of the Chesapeake Bay's health that does not address the effects of population growth is futile. Our beautiful Bay, once the world's most productive estuary, has been slowly dgraded to the point where if you osyters or crabs from a Baltimore grocery these days, chances are they were imported from out-of-state. Many Maryland watermen are now employed far from the Bay. Wetlands loss to development, polluted runoff from parking lots, suburban lawns that are saturated with fertilizers and herbicides, effluent from stormsewer surges during heavy precipitation, deforestation, farm runoff and soil erosion, and overfishing have nearly ruined our once major source of sustenance. All of the damage is directly or indirectly due to massive population growth and migration out of the cities causing hundreds of square miles of suburban sprawl in the second half of this century.
Our summer evening 30 years ago, I remember rowing with my brother and sisters off the shore of our farm on Sinepuxent Bay and noticing that our boat was leaving a luminous trail on the water. Dipping my hands into the water, I scooped out a glowing silver dollar sized mass of protoplasm, a tiny non-stinging jellyfish that illuminates when disturbed, aurelia aurita, commonly known as a moonie. It was a magical moment for a child, and I only saw them a few more summers. And then they were gone, probable victims of degraded water quality due to agricultural pesticide, herbicides, fertilizer and sediment runoff(due to soil erosion) along with sewage dumping. The jellyfish had no economic value, but they had a value to me -- one more wonder of Mother Nature and God that we had inadvertantly eliminated.I wonder whether in the future, the only Baltimore Oriole that our kids will see willbe the baseball team logo.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently produced a "State of the Bay" report which uses several indicators to gauge the present condition of the bay in relation to historic conditions. On a scale of one to one hundred, one hundred being optimum, the blue crab scored 50. Crabs are a relatively resilient species and have had their ups and downs but appear to be holding their own (Though there is plenty of room for improvement). The oyster scored a 1, which is to say we have all but wiped out one of the economic staples of the Chesapeake Bay.
There is some recent success with osyter farming, though a small scale. The rockfish scored a 70 which is very good amd demonstrates that limiting the harvest of a species can restore them (when combined with other steps to improve water quality). Sea grass coverage only scored a twelve. This is not good as this is fundamental indicator on which the health of most other Bay species can restore them (when combined with other steps to improve water quality). The Chesapeake now has 69,000 acres of sea grass compared to historic acreage of 600,000. Tangier Sound, one of the most productive areas of the Bay has lost 50 percent of its grasses since 1992.
All of this is academic unless we are able to slow or stop population growth. Comparing old aerial photos with recent ones I have taken of the Baltimore-Washington area reveals an incredible (and unsustainable) amount of growth in just 50 years. The comparison to a cancer metastisizing thoughout the body is unavoidable. If this "growth" continues unchecked any hope of saving our great Bay become hollow.
Immigration into America now account for over half of our population growth and is rightly being questioned by many environmentalists (in spite of the Sierra Club leadership's "weak kneed" position) due to the obvious linkage between environmental degradation and population growth. America's population is projected to almost double to nearly a half a billion people in just 50 years if present trends continue. If we continue bumbling down this path to disaster with the far right fighting family planning and pushing for more Third World immigrants to provide cheap labot and the far left favoring present high immigration levels to win their demographic war everyone will ose, especially Mother Nature.
