This stretch of crystal clear waters, which extends from the mouth of the Susquehanna River to the Atlantic Ocean, is renowned for its breathtaking beauty and excellent fishing. The European colonists who populated Chesapeake Bay in the late 17th and early 18th centuries brought industrial agricultural techniques with them. Logging and deep plowing of farmland increased the load of sediments and nutrients in the bay, which continued to increase as the area continued to develop (Cooper & Brush 199). Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the country and the third largest in the world.
An estuary is a semi-enclosed body of coastal water with a free connection to the open ocean, where the fresh water of the inland rivers mixes with the salt water of the ocean. The bay itself is popular for boating and recreational fishing. The Chesapeake commercial fishery is worth billions of dollars and includes blue crabs, rockfish, menhaden and oriental oysters. The bay also includes two of the largest commercial ports on the East Coast: Baltimore and Hampton Roads.
The bay contains about 18 trillion gallons of water. That amount of water would fill more than fifty billion bathtubs to the brim. 3000 years ago, ocean waters reached what is now Havre de Grace, Maryland, where the Susquehanna River meets Chesapeake Bay today. Therefore, as the bay warms, hypoxia may last longer in each summer season in the bay's deep central channel. Despite their central role in coastal food webs, surprisingly little is known about the ecology and dynamics of the misids in the Chesapeake Bay.
Starting in 1978, numerous expeditions were launched in the hope of successfully discovering what was left of the Chesapeake Bay flotilla. Researchers are working in Chesapeake Bay to gather information on water quality, the abundance of plants and animals, coastal erosion, tides, waves and the proliferation of harmful algae. In September 1781, during the War of Independence, the British sank more than a dozen ships in the York River, near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay watershed includes parts of six states and is home to about 17 million people., including the cities of Washington, D.
Over time, communities around Chesapeake Bay formed confederations such as Powhatan, Piscataway and Nanticoke. Algae prevent sunlight from reaching the bottom of the bay while they are alive and deoxygenate the water in the bay when it dies and rots. The Chesapeake Bay watershed has been heavily affected by natural forces such as erosion, tides, and a history of hurricanes and other storms. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501 (c) () of the Internal Revenue Code.
With its long coastline, low topography, and growing coastal population, the Chesapeake Bay region is among the places in the country most vulnerable to rising sea levels. Individual, population, and ecosystem effects of hypoxia in a dominant benthic bivalve in Chesapeake Bay. I planned to spend my days sailing, eating as many blue crabs from Chesapeake Bay as possible and studying a little about the inhabitants of the East Coast. The Chesapeake Bay watershed, home to more than 18 million people and 3,600 species of plants and animals, it really is an extraordinary place.