Chesapeake Bay | NOAA Fisheries

Time 2020-09-24 05:07:26

Web Name: Chesapeake Bay | NOAA Fisheries

WebSite: http://chesapeakebay.noaa.gov

ID:57735

Keywords:

Bay,Chesapeake,Fisheries,

Description:

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary. Its 64,000 square mile watershed encompasses one of the most economically significant regions of the United States. More than 18 million people live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Chesapeake produces about 500 million pounds of seafood each year, supporting jobs in both commercial and recreational fishing and bolstering the regional economy.The Bay is a highly valued resource for the region for additional reasons, including tourism, recreational boating, and scenic beauty. In recent decades, the Bay’s biologically diverse ecosystem has seen sharp declines in some of its keystone species, including the native oyster. Human effects on the ecosystem, like overfishing, degraded water quality, and habitat destruction, are significant challenges to the Chesapeake and the species that live there. We work to improve the health of the Bay by using the latest science to ensure its sustainable use for generations to come. 3,600+ species of plants and animals More than 3,600 plants and animals call the Chesapeake Bay home! The Bay supports an impressive diversity of flora and fauna including 348 species of finfish, 173 species of shellfish, more than 2,700 plant species, and more than 16 species of underwater grasses. 11,684 miles of shoreline The Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries have 11,684 miles of shoreline—more than the entire U.S. West Coast. But the Bay is surprisingly shallow: its average depth, including tidal tributaries, is about 21 feet. A person who is six feet tall could wade through more than 700,000 acres of the Bay and never get their hat wet. 18+ trillion gallons of water The Chesapeake Bay holds more than 18 trillion gallons of water! Each day, roughly 51 billion gallons flow into the Bay from its freshwater tributaries. Focusing on the Choptank River WatershedThe Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its tributaries, and their watershed are treasured parts of the Chesapeake Bay—and it has been designated as a NOAA Habitat Focus Area. NOAA and partners are restoring habitat, connecting decisionmakers with needed information, and engaging communities as they look to their future.Learn more about NOAA’s work in this special place Exploring Nearshore Fish Habitat in Virginia’s Middle Peninsula The Middle Peninsula—the watersheds of Virginia’s York and Piankatank rivers and Mobjack Bay—holds habitat including marshes, wetlands, oyster reefs, and underwater grasses. NOAA is working with other federal agencies and other organizations on nearshore habitat restoration and oyster reefs in these vulnerable waters.    Learn more about NOAA’s middle peninsula work  Supporting the Chesapeake Bay ProgramThe Chesapeake Bay Program is a regional partnership of federal, state, and local governments; nonprofit organizations; and academic institutions—all driving toward a healthier Chesapeake. NOAA plays key roles in partnership efforts in fisheries, education, habitat, and climate.Learn more about the Chesapeake Bay program's work Building an Outdoor Learning Network NOAA is partnering with several organizations to build a network of school systems and organizations that will deliver meaningful watershed educational experiences to students around the Chesapeake watershed.Learn more about our work to support student experiences in the Chesapeake Bay watershed As long as humans have lived near the Chesapeake, they have enjoyed eating seafood from the Bay. The Chesapeake is home to 348 species of finfish and 173 species of shellfish. It is a source for both commercial and recreational harvest. Blue crab, oysters, and striped bass are some of the Chesapeake’s treasured species. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are also home to species that people do not harvest for food, including the endangered Atlantic sturgeon. NOAA does not manage fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay; that work is handled by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Virginia Marine Resources Commission, and Potomac River Fisheries Commission. But we do play an active role in ensuring the most up-to-date science is available to resource managers and decision makers around the Bay. This supports ecosystem-based fisheries management in the complex and dynamic Chesapeake Bay.One way we do this is by leading the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team, bringing experts together to talk about fisheries science. This team supports the blue crab fishery by issuing an annual Blue Crab Advisory Report that discusses the state of the blue crab population in the Bay. It also tackles emerging challenges, like the invasive blue catfish population and the effects these voracious eaters may have on the ecosystem.To support advancement of fisheries science, we manage the Chesapeake Bay Fisheries Research Program. This grant competition supports researchers who explore topics to find answers that fishery managers need. Recent projects have worked to quantify the ecosystem and economic benefits that restored oyster reefs bring to the ecosystem. Current projects explore summer flounder, black sea bass, and the forage species and habitats they need to thrive. The Chesapeake Bay and its watershed provide habitat for more than 3,600 species of plants and animals. Healthy habitats provide food and shelter for these species, which include fish, crabs, and oysters. The Chesapeake is a diverse ecosystem. Habitats in the Bay include: Oysters are an important part of the Chesapeake Bay. They filter and remove excess nutrients like nitrogen from the water and they grow in reefs that provide habitat for fish and crabs. Oyster reefs support not only the ecosystem, but the economy. As a result of disease, overfishing, degraded water quality, and other problems, only about 1-2 percent of the historic native oyster population remains.NOAA works with other agencies and organizations to restore oyster reefs in Maryland and Virginia waters of the Chesapeake Bay. NOAA experts lead workgroups that develop and implement restoration work. NOAA scientists conduct sonar surveys and develop habitat analysis to guide projects and monitor progress. And NOAA provides funding to support the hatchery production of baby oysters. Project partners include the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Virginia Marine Resources Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and nonprofit Oyster Recovery Partnership. Universities, local governments, and nonprofits contribute unique skills and resources as well.The Chesapeake Bay Program, in which NOAA is a partner, has set as a goal to restore oysters to 10 Chesapeake tributaries by 2025. In Maryland, the tributaries are:Partners develop a “blueprint” that describes precisely where restoration will happen in each tributary. Each blueprint includes maps generated by NOAA on where the best places for restoration are in that particular tributary. The blueprints also indicate how many oysters will be needed so that the completed project will meet the definition of “restored.” They also describe—based on location—what is type of restoration is needed. Some areas might only need to be seeded with “spat-on-shell” baby oysters. Others might need to have reefs constructed and to be seeded with spat on shell. Still others might need to have reefs constructed so that naturally occurring spat have a hard place on which to settle and grow. Experts monitor each restored reef at three and again at six years after restoration to see how big the reefs are and how many oysters live there. In Maryland, for example, 55 out of 56 reefs that were monitored between 2015 and 2017 met the minimum criteria for success, and 75 percent met even higher target criteria. Because the tributaries were chosen in different years, they are all at different stages in their progress toward completion.All of these large-scale projects are in places that Maryland or Virginia has protected from harvest, giving the oysters the opportunity to grow and thrive. Because oyster larvae float with the currents, larvae produced by a reef in one creek may end up settling in a neighboring creek where harvesting oysters is legal.Living LaboratoryThese restored reef areas serve as a real-life laboratory where scientists can research the benefits they bring to the ecosystem. NOAA scientists and NOAA-funded researchers at academic institutions are exploring the difference in how many—and what species—fish use areas before and after restoration, They are tracking how much nitrogen oyster reefs (and the critters that live on and near them) remove from the water. This can help people decide whether installing oyster reefs is effective so that local and state governments could get “credit” toward helping to clean up the Bay by doing so.A NOAA-funded study at Morgan State University compared fully mature oyster reefs in the Choptank River System to a fished-down starting point. It showed that the mature reefs would yield a 160 percent increase to blue crab harvest. It would also create an estimated nearly $23 million increase in annual fishing revenues in the two closest counties. The research also indicates that more than 300 (full- and part-time) jobs could result as well. Over the past several decades, sea levels and temperatures have risen at rates higher than historical averages. These and future changes threaten coastal communities, aquatic life, and our ability to restore an already stressed system. The Chesapeake Bay is particularly vulnerable to these changes because many of its native plants and animals are already at the edge of their temperature range. For example, eelgrass, an underwater grass that currently dominates much of the lower Bay, is at the southernmost edge of its range. As Bay temperatures increase, we are likely to see marked decreases of eelgrass—a critical habitat for fish, crabs, and many other Bay species.Other changes—including variations in salinity, sea level rise, ocean acidification—could pose challenges to Bay species.Threats to Coastal CommunitiesThe Chesapeake Bay's coastal communities are a major economic engine for the region. They support commercial and recreational fishing, desirable living areas, and major recreational opportunities. Immediate and potentially life-threatening events such as hurricanes, as well as long-term issues like recurrent tidal flooding, pose real challenges to both safety and the economy. We connect resource managers with the most up-to-date science to enable them to make informed decisions.NOAA provides data and information to help people understand and prepare for climate variability and change across the nation and around the world. We are also looking at climate challenges at a regional level through our partnership in the Chesapeake Bay Program. Through the Climate Resiliency Workgroup, we are working to connect citizens and decision makers with how they can apply climate knowledge to projects, programs, and policies, as well as incorporate climate variability into future restoration and protection efforts.Giving area residents the information and tools they need to make good decisions about taking care of the Chesapeake is key to sustaining a healthy Bay. Educating today’s students—tomorrow’s stewards—is an important part of this effort. We manage programs designed to increase the environmental literacy of students in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.One of our biggest programs in the area is the Chesapeake Bay-Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) grant program. This program gives support—financial and expertise—to school systems and other organizations that provide education for students and training for teachers. For students, these meaningful watershed educational experiences are often spark a life-long love of the Chesapeake Bay.NOAA also runs the Environmental Science Training Center to give educators knowledge and tools to deliver up-to-date science information to the next generation of Bay stewards. Workshops are held at the Environmental Science Training Center’s home in Oxford, Maryland—and around the Bay watershed. Another learning tool is Chesapeake Exploration, an online platform that gives educators access to courses that advance their knowledge about local science topics and resources. We are dedicated to helping rising stars in estuarine science and policy grow their skills. Every summer, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office hosts several undergraduate and graduate school interns. These experiences give them opportunities to take a deeper dive into an area of their interest. They gain experience working at a NOAA office, while NOAA benefits from the energy and new perspectives these students bring. NOAA also leads the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Education Workgroup, providing expertise and coordination that lead to policies that support environmental literacy throughout the watershed. Sign up for our newsletter Stay informed of all the latest regional news around NOAA Fisheries

TAGS:Bay Chesapeake Fisheries 

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The 64,000 square mile watershed of the Chesapeake Bay encompasses one of the most economically significant regions of the United States.

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