Its wetlands protect communities from extreme weather events, such as erosion, floods and storm surges. And the trees that stretch out from the bay. The Chesapeake Bay ecosystem affects the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. And the trees that stretch from the shores and the forests of the bay refresh our communities.
As an interconnected system, the health of the Bay Area affects the health of regions around the world, including the people who live in them. The Chesapeake Bay watershed is an integral part of the human health and well-being of more than 18 million people, from providing an important source of drinking water to supporting a fishing industry that supports the families and livelihoods of previous generations. Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It extends from north to south from the mouth of the Susquehanna River to the Atlantic Ocean.
It is one of the most productive estuaries in the world, with more than 3,600 species of animals and plants. The bay provides vitally important habitats for wildlife, many recreational opportunities for people, and is an important fishery on which both people and wildlife depend. The bay is a very valuable resource for the region for additional reasons, such as tourism, recreational boating, and scenic beauty. In recent decades, the bay's biologically diverse ecosystem has experienced a sharp decline in some of its key species, including the native oyster.
Human effects on the ecosystem, such as overfishing, water quality degradation and habitat destruction, pose significant challenges to Chesapeake and the species that live there. We work to improve the health of the bay by using the latest scientific advances to ensure its sustainable use for generations to come. Chesapeake Bay has been central to Maryland's culture, history and economy for centuries. For many people, Chesapeake conjures up images of days of rest, dropping chicken necks from a pier to catch blue crabs.
Or take a boat ride along the Patuxent River or along one of the many other tributaries of the bay. Below are some facts and figures about Chesapeake Bay and its watershed to illustrate how these resources contribute to Maryland residents and visitors. The European colonists who populated Chesapeake Bay in the late 17th and early 18th centuries brought industrial agricultural techniques with them. In the 1970s, it was discovered that Chesapeake Bay contained one of the first identified marine dead zones on the planet, where the waters were so depleted of oxygen that they could not support life, causing the mass death of fish.
NOAA manages a set of observation buoys, the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System, which tracks data on water quality and meteorological and oceanographic conditions. On average, the depth of the bay is 6.4 m (21 ft), including tributaries; more than 24 percent of the bay is less than 2 m (6 ft) deep. 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. Concern about the increasing discovery of pollution problems in the bays and the institutional challenges posed by organizing bay restoration programs over a large geographical area led Congress to order the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assume a greater role in studying the scientific and technical aspects of the problems starting in the late 1970s. Starting in 1978, numerous expeditions were launched in the hope of successfully discovering what was left of the Chesapeake Bay flotilla.
Chesapeake Bay offers many opportunities (leaving MDE) for recreational fishing, boating, bird watching and other outdoor activities. Chesapeake Bay is an estuary (leaving MDE) and is the largest ecosystem of its kind in the United States. The arrival of the English colonists Sir Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert in the late 16th century to found a colony, which was later established on Roanoke Island (off the current coast of North Carolina) for the Virginia Company, marked the first time that the English approached the gates of Chesapeake Bay, between the capes of Cape Charles and Cape Henry. Five hundred million pounds of seafood are harvested each year in Chesapeake Bay to support livelihoods and livelihoods in the region. Chesapeake Bay has a vast watershed (leaving the MDE) that spans 64,000 square miles and encompasses parts of six states: Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the entire District of Columbia.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501 (c) (of the Internal Revenue Code). NOAA also leads the Chesapeake Bay Program educational task force, which provides expertise and coordination that lead to policies that support environmental literacy throughout the watershed.