Will the Chesapeake Become a Dead Zone?

In the 45,000 square mile Chesapeake Bay, the country’s largest estuary, nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater treatment plants, and urban and agricultural run-off is continuously suffocating marine life.
“What happens in the Chesapeake Bay is not only important to our residents, but it also impacts seafood industries, recreation and commercial anglers all along the Atlantic Coast,” says Allison Colden, a senior fisheries scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an independent conservation organization.
Despite decades of clean up efforts, and evolving regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, the bay remains in a critical state. To make matters worse, climate change is compounding the region’s problems. Increased rainfall, which flushes more nutrients into the bay, and warming water temperatures is making it harder to reverse the damage already done to the bay.

[@robertspies4695]

As a retired marine biologist I can assure you that the restoration of Chesapeake Bay has been a big effort since the 1970s. There have been many commissions, plans and goals and it does not look like there has been precious little progress.

[@brett76544]

I was at one of the hearings for the current "Chesapeake Bay Plan" in Binghamton NY. God that must have been around. 2012. You should have seen the NYS DEC, we are not part of the compact and what law do you have to even enforce this on us. There were a bunch of us elected or appointed officials there that spoke after everyone else. (they offered to have us speak first, but all but one decided to let the people speak first) I can remember when the Baltimore Sun did an article on the Strict letter from the EPA 28 DEC 2009 and the first thing I thought of, this program will be a train wreck. The funny part was how the EPA is enforcing this is due to a settlement agreement for a court case, so that is shaky ground. Then there is how the reductions are documented. So much is on documentation and funds not being spent for simple fixes. I'm a chairman for a sewer system, and work as an environmental professional (def. 40 CFR). IF you look into the plans, reports from NYS they are all fashionably late. Still there are concerns for allotments of pollution to use for growth. We had a new soil conservation head for the county a few years ago and I told him, for the county it is just a paperwork shuffle, due to the programs already in place to meet our allotment of reductions. At the sewer plant the largest reduction in Phosphorus was when NYS changed the law for laundry detergents and since we are just south of Binghamton NY, most people shop there from PA. With testing at the sewer plants and spending well over a billion dollars of state money (not counting local money) they got major reductions from the sewer sector, but that is a small part. Now cross boarder testing from NY to PA there was an interesting Effect with solids, when gas drilling started in a water shed everything went up, TSS, TN and TP. That was never accounted for. I have gone to many meetings, had people call me up to go to them and the one thing, the farm bureau's just hate this. I can remember saying look at these questionares from the USDA, guess who is collecting data for farmers. They had no idea just how big this is. Then I had to listen to the farm bureau say, lets push this off to the boroughs and townships to make reductions. Go after the sewer plants. Then I mention, remember is program or that program for the farmers and then a light goes off and I said, now just put that to paper and magically there are the reductions. Then the data was collected and OMG we were way above the reductions needed for the county with only having meetings and doing paperwork. iT blew the farm bureau's mind; they were dreading this.

[@ajax1137]

It's a farce. Bay health has barely budged in 30 years. Back River treatment plant leaks millions of gallons of untreated waste into the bay every year.

[@raclark2730]

@@brett76544 Sounds like this farm Bureau need to be sacked on mass. Nutrient run of is not that hard to curb. I will cite the sugar cane Industry in Australia, there were significant problems with run of in the past Affecting onshore waterways and the Great Barrier Reef. Plans were enacted with the co operation of multiple parties. The entire industry changed method In how the crop is grown and harvested. On top of this waterways were revegetated with buffer vegetation, and bioactive run of pits are now also in use. Run of levels have gone from problematic to barely detectable in reef waters and damaged mangrove species are also on the comeback. The Industry is doing fine and nobody lost their farm. No excuse for this kind of run issue in this day and age. They aught to take a look at what has been happening in the Netherlands, and pull their fingers out as we say here in Aus.

[@kellikelli4413]

Same with other such expensive projects around America

[@roellopez3737]

So basically the bay is just one crappy money pit and you expect the taxpayer to fix what you polluted.

[@l.mcmanus3983]

Waste from chicken poop running into the bay is also frustrating because it could be used as fertilizer if properly handled. Fertilizer prices have gone way up I recent years and this seems like an untapped resource that could turn something harmful into something beneficial. Also, adding ditches besides fields and creating ponds for runoff to pause in can help remove those nutrients from the water it would reach the bay.

[@walleyperch]

And pig poop…

[@kellikelli4413]

I'm all in favor of natural farming rather than all the synthetic products that pollute.

[@paulstubbings645]

@@kellikelli4413 cannot feed the masses organically.

[@kevinhoffman8214]

IT IS USED AS FERTILIZER ! and the state pays to truck it to you

[@stewatparkpark2933]

It is used as fertilizer , that's how it ends up in the bay .

[@Drakeblood97]

As a former personel at a certain WWTP in the Baltimore area I got to see first hand how neglected these facilities are and what the actual pollution data looked like. These facilities are truly crumbling down inside and out. Entire sections of the plant are rendered inoperable due to excessive buildup of fats and sludge. Frequent pipe bursts inside the building, non-functioning A/C in the summer, etc.

[@QuantumImperfections]

I feel this, I worked in manufacturing and academia for statistical analysis of program success. If people overall knew how neglected *everything* in our society is everyone would freak out.

[@Drakeblood97]

@@QuantumImperfections Most people would probably be mildly concerned for an hour or two and then go back to their day

[@RandyBoatswain-d8z]

and the stench during the summer is unberable.

[@Lightlinefisherman]

as a fisherman that lives in md literally all my life this hurts so much to hear and actually confirms some of the fears I have had going to the popular fishing piers of chesapeake bay like matapeake. what a shame. we need change now.

[@ronkirk5099]

Man-made eutrophication is killing many of our water bodies. When we apply so much fertilizer to our agricultural lands that only half of the fertilizer applied is actually taken up by plants and the other half winds up in ground and surface waters, you can't help but cause an ecological disaster.

[@Mysucculentchinesemeal]

Not only that but it’s been proven that when foreign ships come to port and release their ballast tanks to take on goods they drop off invasive species for which our local ecosystem has no predators allowing them to breed unchecked.

[@robertgiarrusso9118]

It happened to the small lake on my community college campus the lake is at the bottom of the campus hill all the landscaping fertilizers cause it. It’s completely unavoidable in any modern community

[@rosannaspeller9408]

Such a waste in so many ways

[@Heighdaro]

⁠@@robertgiarrusso9118 idk if I am misunderstanding what you said but I refuse to accept that corrective measures cannot be implemented and policy can’t be enforced just because of modern society.

[@SeniorBillzy]

@@Heighdaro Test the soil, test the water runoff… if there’s fertilizer in the runoff then you are using too much fertilizer? The plant should be using it for food not turning its nose up at it, it would be cheaper and more environmentally sound to use less fertilizer.

[@Busto]

It is infuriating that whenever some industry misses an EPA deadline, they just push it back a bit. There was a reason the original deadline was what it was. We can't just move the goalposts when it comes to averting ecological collapse

[@ajax1137]

The Back River treatment plant under control of Baltimore, has been neglected and spewing untreated waste into the bay for years now. I don't want to hear another word about chicken waste until this is fixed.

[@rosannaspeller9408]

I signed up for different Baltimore City Government alerts and it is terrifying how frequently they have alerts about sewer overflow. It’s gotta be at least once a month.

[@ismileatdeath27]

The only thing green about back river or Curtis bay is Synagro … process waste for the city of Baltimore and turn it into fertilizer for farmers. What the city of Baltimore does with the rest of waste who really knows .. we do know once a week their pumps are either broken or being replaced… they try to cover up their mistakes with just telling us their swapping tanks…

[@sdvten]

The majority of cities do the same and some towns. Especially during flooding which overwhelms the treatment plant capacity. All of the discharge from these plants ends up in streams and rivers and then the bay.

[@michaelimbesi2314]

I think the issue is that there are so many chicken farms that they easily outweigh the impact of a single water treatment plant.

[@BobbyLunsford83]

Just the smell in Dundalk and Essex will make you feel sick

[@rtqii]

I grew up there. I sailed a dingy (dinghy) all over the bay. I saw massive fish kills back in the 60's during the Vietnam war. I ate a lot of crab, striped bass, clams and oysters out of that water. Back then there was raw sewage going into the bay from the Back River whenever it rained hard in Baltimore, the storm water would overflow the sewage treatment plant, and it washed the raw sewage into the bay. All of the boats and shipping dumped sewage waste from their heads. I remember sailing through masses of dead fish and seeing toilet paper in the water. As the sewage waste digests it deoxygenates the water, and schools of fish swim in and it kills them all. It was about that time that property owners on shore and watermen started organizing to protect the bay from pollutants. There are technologies that can be applied today that were not available back then, like solar powered bubblers to help oxygenate the water.

[@cheseapeakebaykayakfisher1385]

I fished there for years. I noticed a drastic reduction in the fish population over time.

[@williamkellerchipdrill]

and back river is still polluting the bay cause no one knows how to run the new plant the workers smoking weed all the time putting thre material on cement pad while belt press building get rebuilt

[@WorldsOkayestBusDriver]

So…… get rid of the FARMS that feed the WORLD and build HOMES instead? These homes create POOP and hence wastewater

[@apextroll]

In scientific terms it is called Chemical and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD). The test for this is called BOD5 which is a 5 day standard test at 20 degrees Celsius and then it is explapolated out.

[@cornillious1]

This still happens…

[@mkbrangan]

This is such a well produced video - I want more people to watch it. The aerial shots are beautiful. Hopefully awareness of the problem will help people work towards more solutions to keeping the Bay healthy

[@cheseapeakebaykayakfisher1385]

Share. Raise awareness. Vote.Lead a volunteer group to clean up if you live nearby.....

[@bayoujaeger6299]

The northern end of the bay has some horrible algae blooms while down here closer to the ocean omega and other commercial fishing conglomerates are raping our waters of menhaden. Every fish and crab relies heavily on the huge menhaden grounds but politicians continue to allow them to be in the bay using planes to locate huge pods of menhaden and other baitfish while further restricting the local watermen.

[@williamkellerchipdrill]

The almighty dollar at work wonder what they will do when its all gone

[@cjthebeesknees]

Picture that scenario, across the board with every sector, profession, way of life in the US and that’s Capitalism at it’s near peak worst.

[@penitenttangent7346]

Lmao cope

[@kj55]

I grew up in the area in the 80s and 90s. I remember hearing stories from my elders that in the 50 and 60 the water was clear in some spots and you could see the bottom. I remember going crabbing after school with my brother with nothing but a chicken leg, net and bucket. It is sad because everybody knows it's a problem we've always known it was a problem. There are times where they have warnings where you can't even get in the water at the beach because the water is so polluted. It's the fault of leadership they've allowed companies and organizations over the years to dump chemicals and waste into the water basically for campaign funds.

[@AdventureOtaku]

Honestly, anything we try and do at the scale we need it for our population, from raising food (farms and chickens in this case) to handling waste, to harvesting fish for both sport and feeding our people just isn’t maintainable without destroying the environment. We need to change the way we think and do everything in our society if we are going to survive.

[@planescaped]

The way we are going the human virus will kill the planet eventually if it doesn't kill us.

[@wecandobetter9821]

Having live on the bay all my life I’ve witnessed the slow death of a national treasure. Back in the 50s we had abundance of sea grasses that supported numerous species of life. We also had millions up millions of oysters that help filter the water. Once the grasses and oysters died off it started the demise. Despite attempts to correct this problem it continues to spiral downward. I don’t have a magic solution to solve this. Hopefully somebody does

[@rtqii]

Monsanto has a subsidiary, P4 Production LLC. They operate phosphate mines, a mill, and refinery in Soda Springs ID to produce elemental phosphorus. The entire area of their site and the buffer area is contaminated with toxic selenium, cadmium, and radioactive thorium as a result of this extraction activity. I was surprised to find that most of their production of elemental phosphorus goes into manufacturing Roundup. The use of this herbicide nationally actually adds many tons of free surface phosphorus to the environment every year.

[@iamhis5580]

Monsanto which Bayer bought is a terrible company but has many government connections to allow it to keep doing terrible things! Why are they not stopped? Why is our food sprayed with glyphosate???!! American food is poison and we are poisoning the land and water at the same time!

[@billyboy4797]

the seafood must be delicious.

[@cjthebeesknees]

Major contributor to the upticks in cancer, that RoundUp.

[@Brasslite]

Chesapeake Bay is one of our countries' invaluable resources. The governors and congressional members should be pushing hard for the Bays restoration. Necessary restrictions will not be popular with all residents.

[@aidandurkan15]

They should, but they won't. I'm from Delaware and our senators are completely brought out. Almost 90 percent of Delaware water sheds are polluted to the extent it's unsafe for wildlife to live in. Our reps at a federal level do nothing, they allow chicken farms to pollute, Dupont to pollute and large factories to get away dumping. The only change we will get if we upend the whole system replace all these corrupt assholes and crack down on companies.

[@zacktimmons2886]

A huge amount comes down from the watershed in NY and PA via the Susquehanna river in northern maryland

[@adriaanboogaard8571]

I grew up in Farming and Ranching but I've worked for a Water Utility for 28 years I also love to fish . I think it's like most things in life we can do better from all sides need each other's help and teamwork.

[@ginathacker6207]

I sail the Bay from the Magothy, it’s beautiful and sometimes wild. To my knowledge, Maryland restricts the harvesting of female crabs. But, Virginia does not. The abundance of females left by Maryland is a boon enriching Virginia’s unrestricted harvest. Follow the money and the self interest.

[@forfun6273]

Yeah I grew up on the patuxent. I think female crabs shouldn’t be allowed to be kept at all. Commercial or recreational. Virginia needs to get with the program. I’m not sure if there’s some data on females over a certain size not producing eggs anymore. If that were the case then that would be cool. But people don’t even value the females the same as male crabs. Better off just leaving them. Sure it’ll hurt the crabbers but I’d imagine after a few years the overall population would increase enough where it wouldn’t harm the fishermen as much. Maybe subsidize them for a couple years. I understand needing to feed your family. But the females are the future and your ability to feed your family long term. So it seems beneficial to just leave them.

[@JohnnyRFarmer]

Factory farming is more responsible than anything. Two immediate things you can do is stop buying brand name chicken. Get it from a locally sourced organic farm. Second, don't put Scott's lawn products on your lawn.

[@basementstudio7574]

Until a clean bay is more profitable than running a farm or waste water treatment facility as cheaply as possible, we're all doomed.

[@1969kodiakbear]

Nicest places to live in the world. By the way, I have difficulty communicating because I had a stroke in Broca’s area, the part of the brain that controls speech. 2/8/2021 but I lived again. (My wife helped me compose this.)

[@RK-cj4oc]

Best of luck to you and may you make a recovery my friend.

[@farwoodfarm9296]

I grew up in East Baltimore and my Grandparents lived in Tolchester Beach across the bay. This breaks my heart, I spent the first 20 years of my life in and along the bay.

[@666devilknight]

MD sucks. It’s government sucks. But the bay is amazing. It’s the only thing that holds me here.

[@theesteviefranchise458]

Knew I shouldn’t watch this, but I did anyway and now I’m disturbed and frustrated. Large problems rarely get solved by a single, big solution and looking to others never seems to help me solve problems of such scope. I’ll look at myself to see what can I do this season. I can’t ask others to find solutions if I’m not pitching in myself. So, I will…find a way to help

[@philipm3173]

You need organization or nothing gets done

[@stussymishka]

Respect to those volunteers for helping restore the bay!!

[@barrywarren4221]

The Northern Chesapeake Bay I've lived around all my life. Back in the 50's, 60's the North East River was just as clear as can be, and this river helps feed the Chesapeake. I wouldn't go swimming then at all now. When they killed off the seaweed back in the late 60's and harvested the dead grass with paddleboat's weeks later. I watched it as I was a teenager.

[@anthonymorales842]

hello Mr Warren do you know the reason for killing the seaweed?

[@eastprospecthomestead]

I grew up and live on the Susquehanna..the water quality has gone down hill so fast..these farms and amount of boats plays a big part

[@scottweisel3640]

I live in a small town in a bay state. We have invested millions of dollars in storm sewer run off storage and treatment. Each household had to spend $10,000 to reline sewer laterals due to storm water infiltration overwhelming the sanitary sewer treatment plants. The surrounding farms (mainly dairy) have had to change manure management practices to comply with “Save The Bay” regulations. We have been doing our part, only to find that Maryland and DC have not done theirs. 75% of the bay’s problems are from the cities and agriculture that are on the bay, and yet they still continue to $h!t where they eat. The solution will probably be another round of forced “improvements” on those in the Susquehanna watershed, instead of forcing the bay cities to fix their problems.

[@cmenacez8748]

Run-off and nutrients is certainly a huge problem but if we’re talking about wanting a healthy ecosystem and living body of water, WHY is nobody talking about OMEGA PROTIEN whiping out the menhaden that are the main food supply of stripped bass and others fish? A corporation is single handedly destroying a part of the food chain and everyone should be talking about this piece of the puzzle as well if we want change.

[@eleanormattice3598]

We need to regulate farm off across the country. Farmers must be incentified to use BMPs around our waterways. We need to invest in our infrastructure of sewage treatment plants as they shouldn't be over flowing into our rivers, lakes, bays. Hire officials for monitoring and enforcement of strict protections of our water. Restore our riparian areas in watersheds everywhere as the vegetation helps remove nutrients and the shade cools water. Water is life! We must adapt or die.

[@donovanlynch7896]

Main issue with water treatment is they are running full capacity all the time because so many people are moving here its insane how many people from the citys are moving here

[@rosannaspeller9408]

That so much of our farmland is owned by very few people who lease it out to farmers means that the incentives are going to have to be pretty $$$. Most farmers are already dealing with a lot of challenges and have to do whatever they can as cheaply and quickly as they can to get any kind of a living out of the soil they are leasing for this season. There’s many alternative farming methods that the USDA has been promoting but they all take years to actually get profit out of them so while farmers have no idea of their long term ability to farm that land and are needing to survive in the short term, there’s plenty of disincentive for them to use those methods. Unless you can get the land out of those greedy few hands and give actual farmers some sense they will have a plot of land for a good amount of time incentives can only be helpful in a small percentage of cases.

[@user-f5xt2op9t]

These are the correct answers!

[@planescaped]

We could do that... Or we could build another jet GO VROOOOOM!

[@bobsmith8124]

“And climate change” love how they always toss that in

[@senoJSR]

Total BS. I've lived here sixty plus years. If anything It's become cooler, not hotter.

[@randylang9017]

I grew up on middle river across from Martin aircraft where they built the flying boats. Beautiful place back the early 60's and 70's.

[@ms.donaldson2533]

I've been in Hawthorne for 8 years. Lockheed martin used to send our the toxic water report. I haven't seen one since the new name... living here is like HELL!

[@JustMeB729]

PLEASE continue to hold these companies and factories accountable. We all need clean safe water. It's a resource you can't live without. And the poor 😢fish.

[@kpokpojiji]

Always troubling how fast we as a species can destroy the environment, and then when our greed is threatened, how incapable we are at actual stewardship and restoration.

[@djl9154]

It’s not just climate change, they admitted in the video that in many cases farms are over applying fertilizer, the source of the nutrients, the other issue is run off control, which can be accomplished thru many different means. Monitoring of pollutants from fertilizer is difficult, since first flush from the storm often has the greatest amount of pollution. Funny no one mentioned riparian buffers, which was supposed to be a great way to reduce the impact from storm water runoff years ago. They never found a good way to implement that program, but is probably one of the best ways to control nutrient pollution if you don’t over apply fertilizer and have appropriate runoff controls both up and down slope of the impacted area.

[@nicholaslewis8594]

The video didn’t imply it was just climate change.

[@billmanzke758]

I grew up in Baltimore in the 1960's. I remember the stench coming from the Back River sewage plant back then!

[@ajax1137]

Guess what? It's still leaking millions of gallons of untreated sewerage into the bay.

[@markpaiste]

Nature needs a lobby and a voice beyond anything it has today.

[@littledorrit6819]

What a shame. As if the once-thriving Chesapeake Bay oyster isn't already a lesson for us.

[@luvslogistics1725]

These rivers are a treasure. The way the waters meet, the salinity and the fresh water at a point where you have the oysters, and crabs. The runoff is real, industrial, urban and farms.

[@bigterrance_4341]

I live in Delaware and have a summer home off the elk river I grew up on the Delaware beaches and the Eastern shore it’s truly sad as an angler what all the pollution has done to the Delaware river/ bay and also the Chesapeake and it’s tributaries. I remember being a kid and the old timers telling me stories about how much life and how clean the water used to be. Hopefully one day we can restore it back to the way it used to be.

[@walleyperch]

We’re gradually wiping ourselves out… maybe not so gradually…

[@jbwilliams18]

There are probably 100+ people like Weaver all competing for the same fish

[@TLove1108]

The place where i was born and raised. What a sad state of affairs. I pray we can turn this around as soon as humanly possible. 🙏🏾❤️🌊🦆🐟🦀

[@Believeincode]

Always go to the honga river, since i was a baby literally. I remember sitting on our dock as a young kid & youd catch something every time no matter what. Now your lucky to catch a perch. Being on a boat is different then pier fishing, but there is way less fish either way you look at it.

[@ifmacfie]

Rockfish are over fished. Crabs get smashed before they even make it up to the bay. I saw schools of bait fish in the inner harbor for the first time in my life last summer. The bay isn’t perfect by any means, but overfishing is the real problem. And it happens before they even make it to the bay.

[@13igtyme.]

We're seeing similar things in south west Florida. Red tide used to be a once yearly short event. Now it's every few weeks.

[@j-cuts9396]

as a maryland waterman wanna know why the bay wont ever be clean....... Government always makes everything worse period

[@jasonfirewalker3595]

Short answer? Yes. The real question is what wont be a dead zone circa 2100?

[@kaminoshi713]

And then you have rural people complaining about the farms disappearing, even when we waste over a third of our own produce.

[@loganfishbeard]

What a stark contrast to the NW. Over here I have seen so many improvements to our waterways since I was a kid. We are definitely still fighting against our own climate issues but Ive seen so many pollution reduction and habitat restoration projects suceed with tangible results. Even the small town I live in created a large, artificial wetland, to uptake excess nutrients from our sewer effluent.

[@rafangille]

yes the west in general has done a much better job of restoring our natural spaces

[@sneersh9107]

@@rafangille The east is much more densely populated so I think that's a big part of why. Just way more pollution to manage and fewer natural resources to help uptake it.

[@sneersh9107]

I'm in Pennsylvania and a lot of our rivers and streams have improved drastically as well. When you get a body of water as large as the Chesapeake with a bunch of different states bordering it it's a lot harder to implement a solution. That's no excuse not to solve it, but the bureaucracy is a total nightmare.

[@keithkuhn6404]

I am always amazed at the regulation they put on small farming counties in Pennsylvania, while overlooking the violations by cities like Baltimore.

[@DELLRS2012]

They addressed that in the video. Was there something specific about Baltimore you were thinking of?

[@KyleB152]

@@DELLRS2012Maryland acts like it’s the most eco friendly state. It’s all smoke in mirrors, soon as you cross the MD line from Virginia all you see is trash and broken down vehicles. MD isn’t fooling anyone. Anything they do is for tax purposes.

[@Roadtripmik]

Brother the Chesapeake is alive and well, but there are less independent watermen because of regulations and prices of seafood

[@deadhorse1391]

I lived most of my life right on the Chesapeake Bay After Hurricane Agnes took out the sea grass beds in 1972 the bay never really recovered Fish and crabs populations are cyclical, I remember when rockfish numbers were so low it was illegal to catch one I think the government just needs to keep the course with what they are doing and things will be OK

[@Peter-zg3em]

i fish every day in the Merrimack river up in northern MA. i [very likely] caught more fish from shore in the merrimack last year than any man alive. my most remarkable takeaway from last year [which was good from a fishing perspective,] was the size of the fish. they were mostly large. some schools were very large. big enough to eat a small striped bass. very few small, local fish. it's not a good thing when you are only getting onto good sized fish. it means that there are very few small fish and that the numbers of fish being born each year are low. the the striped bassh fishery in the Chesapeake is one of the world's most well monitored, and the numebrs the scientists put out seem to line up with what all of the fishermen have been experiencing; low spawning numbers. it does appear that the slot is being reduced from 28-35" to 28-31" to address the poor spawning numbers. that is a start. the best things you can do personally are to make sure you crush your barbs, learn how to handle, revive, and release fish, fish relatively heavy tackle to reduce the fight time, and really take care to revive fish in water over 67 degrees or so. i don't keep striped bass for a number of reasons, and the spawning numbers in the Chesapeake are as good a reason as any. if you care about the fish, you shoudn't keep them either. they'll have a shot of making it up and down the coast and spawning hundreds of thousands of eggs, millions if they get big, and it will all end on your plate if you keep that fish.

[@KyleB152]

It doesn’t matter how many stripped bass you keep. The commercial guys catch everything you throw back. I’ve been on the bay 8 years and have seen a dramatic decrease in baitfish (menhaden) just within those years. People think when omega pulls up a net there are only menhaden caught. What a joke! Take all the filter fish out of the bay and then you have a problem with algae, I highly doubt the biggest problems are the farms.

[@CanoeKayakFishingAdventures]

Over fishing from the Omega plant in Virginia is even more of a contributor to the bay dying. They catch all the bait fish that normally come up the bay to spawn

[@BasicSquare]

Hopefully this message spreads. This problem is in many more places than just the chesapeake bay

[@bigjm3143]

The problem with the water is run off from farms in PA del NY md VA also they need to remove the dam on the susquehanna . As far as life in the bay it's OK. Nature runs in cycles and the hurricane we had in the 70s really screwed up things

[@stuarthirsch]

Conowingo dam has on the Susquehanna since the 1920s, It is a major producer of hydroelectric power in our area. It however is now silting up and must be restored and upgraded, not demolished.

[@bigjm3143]

@Stuart Hirsch I disagree with you. They should be taken down that way, eels, American shad, Hickory shad. Will have their historic run without any obstacles. As far as the energy it provides to the area They can go solar and windmills.

[@stuarthirsch]

@@bigjm3143 A rebuilt Comowingo would have a path for eels and fish, similar to dam bypasses for salmon in the pacific north west. I have seen these in marine life bypasses on dams on the Columbia river in Oregon and Washington. You can see the salmon migrating around the dam through Plexiglas windows.

[@bigjm3143]

@Stuart Hirsch they don't work ! That's another reason Washington and Oregon are taking them down

[@stuarthirsch]

@@bigjm3143 What will replace them? They provide most of the electricity reliably and cheaply, in the most environmentally friendly renewable manner. Time we stopped worrying about snail darters and eels and worry more about people.

[@doubtingtom92]

Can anything else be done to help absorb nutrients other than planting grass? I once saw something where people were farming shellfish in these isolated cages floating in the water. Could using filter feeders help in a way that wouldn't damage the ecosystem?

[@user-f5xt2op9t]

It would need to be at a massive scale to have impact, but this is a very good, proven solution in places like the Chicago river. We still need to deal with the source, as the absorption would only slow down the toxification, not reverse it by any means.

[@doubtingtom92]

@@user-f5xt2op9t I appreciate your feedback. I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in MD and definitely think absorption and addressing the source are two priorities worth digging into.

[@liameller6519]

@@doubtingtom92 Look up algae turf scrubber baltimore harbor

[@jimmajr9224]

i live in the bay area. (Glen Burnie). fishing has picked up. water quality is better than it was in the 70's and 80's. crabs and rockfish are coming back. the oyster re-stocking program adds filter feeders to the system. and people on the water are policing themselves, and others better than in past years. the bay isn't good, but it is better than it has been.

[@user-f5xt2op9t]

Its awesome that one persons experience is counter to all the data and facts. Self policing is definitely the answer we were all waiting for.

[@FamilyManMoving]

I'll back that up from a view further south. Crabs are back over the last decade or so, and water quality has improved over what it was 20 years ago. There's room to get better, for sure. But celebrating progress is a big part of continuing progress. Some folks just like to look at the down sides of everything. Ignore unhappy people. As for self-policing: it's a thing, and while it doesn't "fix the bay", it does instill within populations the ethos of conservation. That impacts votes, which impact policy, which impacts the Bay.

[@lh4763]

One of the residents on Smith island runs the Chesapeake bay foundation and although there have been strides to plant oyster farms, water testing and additional clean up efforts… it’s not getting better fast enough. Infact cases of brain eating amoeba have risen in the river and Bay Area (as it only survives in fresh water) …. Locals here mostly blame it on Harrisburg’s sewage system that tends to overflow frequently. The next huge issue is farming runoff which is all up and down the river even on some of the islands like Shelley’s island right over from 3 mile island… Farming is the main thing that will cause it to be a dead zone from all the phosphates. There’s a myriad of problems and mostly a lack of accountability. Also I just heard that the Chesapeake Bay foundation sued Pennsylvania for not cutting its waste into the Bay and won so thats a win. Everyone is reluctant to swim in the Susquehanna south of Harrisburg… it didn’t used to be like that when I was a kid.

[@Dirtydenadan691]

I crab the patipsico river and its been so sakty there from drought that we uave moo. Jellys and black sea bass. Puffer fish and seahorses comming up in our gear all ovean critter ,well the lined seahore Se is mid lower bay but i dont think amoeba will live in that. Maybe the upper rivers tho

[@RetireMe100]

I grew up on the bay. When i was a teen we trolled for sea trout and caught 15 pound bluefish in May/June. Those days are gone. They’ve ruined the bay over time. Its sad

[@beekeeper7535]

Im a commercial honeybee keeper. I rent hives to farmers who grow watermelon, cucumbers along with everything else that needs pollination. Everyone I've spoke to all agree the Chesapeake bay is getting alot better. 40 years ago wild caught oysters were all but gone now there coming back. I believe the bay is getting better.

[@pattystephens8129]

The problem is not to big to grasp, it’s too simple for us to accept.

[@appollard1527]

Another point that wasn't pointed out is invasive species are obliterating the ecosystem and biodiversity. The blue catfish is horribly invasive and in parts of the James river has been found to make up 90% of the biomass. Not saying that what they pointed out isn't an issue rather they forgot to mention this.

[@lookylook570]

They were too busy harping on climate change..

[@coleengoodell7523]

The EPA needs more power, not less, to enforce environmental protection laws. I've been watching current videos taken in Italy. What strikes me the most is how beautifully pristine all the waterways, oceans and streams are there. Whatever they are doing, they are doing it right.

[@glennquagmire1747]

Actually not true, the water may at times look clean but it's not it is in fact heavily contaminated with chemicals, fish stock has decreased by 75% !!!!

[@quinnmorgendorffer531]

But then part of me wonders if the EPA doesn't act because they are corrupted by corporate interest. They definitely don't need less power though. That is just blatant pandering to corporations.

[@telecomgear]

No they don't.

[@robertstanley980]

The EPA is part of the problem. They don’t enforce regulations for their friends, only for the small guy

[@doctorcropse2795]

They absolutely do not

[@MrLoobu]

Considering what people do, and particularly Americans, knowing the state of the Chesapeake Bay is as easy as counting how many of them surround it.

[@justinbeard3279]

Living for 7 years near the bay it’s just so disgusting and hot and they need to prevent the excess nutrients from entering badly cuz there’s not as much marine life left from couple of decades ago. The global climate changes naturally so we need to work with it

[@mikedennis6979]

Why don't the farms build soil berms to contain the run off ?, Asking for a friend

[@philipm3173]

Why would they do anything intelligent at all?

[@raclark2730]

The best way is actually run of trenches and biological filtration. Either through constructed wet lands or biological digestion pits ( or Both ). Lots of farmers around the world are doing this. Should be standard practice.

[@MadelineWyman-ud4zp]

I swam in the Chesapeake bay in the 80s it was fun I could find either oyster or clams

[@SahibMostafa]

Effective Stormwater management is one of the key ways to bettering the water quality. Especially from a community level basis, if we can implement green infrastructure or reduce the amount of water/sediment going into streams by effective water resources management, this will lead to better water quality in the bay and other large bodies of water.

[@stevenhenry5267]

Once again, corporations are to blame.

[@dogprowilhelm7630]

If they address the issue from the top of the Chesapeake Bay, at Conawingo Dam and clean up the debris collecting on the Pennsylvania side it will reduce the of runoff and would be a real start to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. I've crabbed for a hobby and for friends 40 years. Crabs were larger back in the 1980's at 9 inches from tip to tip, now you'll be fortunate to find them +6 inches. I always tossed the female crabs back in the Chesapeake Bay and never kept any crabs under 5 inches. ❤

[@briantaylor1399]

They’re doing the exact same thing to Tampa bay. Really a shame politicians won’t step in

[@Kid_Ikaris]

What's even crazier to think this isn't even just hazardous waste being dumped. It's potentially useful fertilizers that are being dumped. Like this doesn't even make business sense.

[@FVMissPaula]

Well done video. You should have called me. I could have given you a Waterman's perspective.

[@samuelhughes4774]

Would have loved to see that!

[@SyriusStarMultimedia]

When I moved to Hampton in 1977 the water at Buckroe Beach was up to the sea wall and it smelled worse than diarrhea filled toilet bowl.

[@JacksonG.F.]

No mention in the video of how Pennsylvania has refused to comply with the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint by failing to develop and fund a workable plan for meeting its benchmarks. The EPA meanwhile has shamefully failed to hold PA accountable.

[@michaelbyrne8860]

Lived in Gaithersburg MD. 1986-1990 when things slowed in Houston! Maryland is beautiful but expensive! I Fished the Upper Potomac River, Local Reservoirs Lakes, Indian Pass, OC inlet & Beach, the Assateague Island Beach up to Virginia! During that time, Maryland & DC already had a Rock Fish moratorium! In the lower Potomac River, their annual sien net count never got above 20! Even though the New York State Rock Fish count was above 50 in the very heavily polluted Hudson River and East River drainage? Maryland finally realized it was the silt & the fertilizer used in farming and it's run off into the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay plus the all the new housing development in the Gaithersburg & Rock Creek areas that increased the silt entering the Potomac and other local rivers & tributaries that dump into the Chesapeake! The silt covered the Rock Fish fertilizer eggs laid in the River Systems, suffocating the fry still in their egg sacks! And Maryland didn't enforce their own laws dealing with the silt entering their river systems then, because of Maryland's State housing & farming lobbyist! And that was in the late 80's & early 90's! I now look on Google Earth Map and I don't even recognize the upper Potomac River and the Lock 23 Violets lock and the Seneca Creek areas! As long it's all about the $$$$$! The Maryland Habitat will always suffer! It's very sad! I only lived there 4 years but loved the access to the Potomac River from the C&O Canal path! Being on the river reminded me of fishing all the Illinois Rivers I grew up on before moving to Houston! Now it's their Bayou's! "They Paved Paradise and Put up a Parking Lot!" Go Figure?

[@damonw5926]

Treatment plant run off should be illegal. Period

[@Carsonmtyree]

all the striped bass moved south, i run a 17 whaler throughout the season and i usually catch 4 a day. i dont even keep anymore, they are so easy to catch here in the south

[@erdtree_larry]

Might seem like an odd question, but does anyone know who did the music production for the piece?

[@shangtsung9973]

I'm with the clean water party Fisherman should too

[@anotherdamn6c]

Farming corporations don't fish and they're too rich to care.

[@DanielLehan]

As a lifelong Marylander,there are too many factors in Natures cycles which will keep the bay alive LONG AFTER MAN IS GONE. The 4 trade winds being one of these. Even now it has been slowly evolving into a kaleidescope of differing marine life that were never here in huge abundance when I was a kid in the 1960's. 2 of these being Dolphin and ocean shrimp.I was on the Chesapeake the day after T.S.Isabel,and saw first hand that the ocean water moved way up into the bay in the 7-11 foot storm surge it brought past Chesapeake Beah, and even with all of its' destruction, saw that the oceans salt had cleansed it too.

[@nickdtv9401]

I’ve lived on the Chesapeake all my life. First in maryland, now in Virginia’s eastern shore

[@producerevan88]

Kinda sad that we've let the bay get this bad and then stay this bad.

[@funsmasher7018]

Bring back the filter feeders, oysters, clams, mussels, bunker, and watch the water clear. Look what Zebra Mussels did for the great lakes.

[@funsmasher7018]

To do that, there needs to be hard bottom, not mud, like the bottom now is. That means clean rubble is needed to rebuild the reefs of old to give the filter feeders something to cling to. The solution is there, but the money, and political will are not.

[@moose5.9]

It's crazy we don't recycle farm waste into fertilizer. Same with food waste

[@SuperDexteroo]

There wasn't any fish 15 yrs ago, got skunked twice fishing there. Back in the day there was monster jumbo crabs and plenty of stripers.

[@jeffevers7596]

Look at Paul Stamets he uses oyster mushrooms to eat all of the runoff and weighs coming off of his property from chickens and cows and he used oyster mushrooms to dissolve oil waste and clean up all of this can be taken care of with nature surround the sewage treatment plants the chicken plants all of the water that comes off those properties have to go through oyster mushroom bags the oyster mushrooms will eat all of it and create an ecosystem which will change the environment

[@Elreypablo]

Grew up in MoCo and makes me sad but hopeful that things can change

[@kaptainkaos1202]

It’s so sad. When I was a kid we’d catch some beautiful crabs. They were plentiful and great eating. Now? Lucky if we catch a half dozen for a day of hand catching with chicken necks. Near me I swear you can walk across the water the floats from crab pots are so plenty. It’s a wonder a crab can go 10’ without hitting a crab pot.

[@jasonborne5724]

Yes, just watch that number triple as we let millions of poor people in every year that rely on feeding themselves through hunting and fishing. And I mean with no adherence to the rules that they don’t understand, or care about. Talk to any fish and game warden, every animal in the Forest is taken, every bit of marine life is harvested, regardless of size, or gender.

[@christophercharles9645]

It's such a beautiful area, it would be a shame if we allowed it to decline. Thankfully the SCOTUS has limited the enforcement powers of the EPA recently. That ought to help matters.

[@snorlaxxin8875]

I live in norfolk Virginia so this video hits home

[@sneersh9107]

Tragically ironic that we're raising all these chickens and crops for food and it's causing a massive food source in the area (the seafood in the bay) to be depleted. Producing all this food just to kill off a major producer of food.

[@cejannuzi]

The changes in farming combined with so much development is killing the bay.

[@benjaminstubblefield2637]

I want more emergency indoor hydroponic growing capacity by the Government. We try to keep emergency supplies on hand, and use them FIFO. We should try to have sustainable emergency resources available as well.

[@gpslightlock1422]

Restoration, unfortunately, to politicians means big projects for cronies and nothing to do with actual restoration. Case study: Florida Everglades. If they truly want to restore the Everglades they'll fill in the canals that connect Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee and Saint Lucy rivers. But no, they need to spend billions on projects with zero confidence there will be any "restoration".

[@InternetDarkLord]

Speaking of climate change, the Back Creek splits the Eastern Shore off from the rest of the country, so in effect the entire eastern shore south of it is an island, with just seven bridges off the low, flat area as evacuation routes. Its a catastrophe waiting to happen if a major hurricane hits.

[@raywalteroutdoors]

I’m tired of paying PA rain tax for the Chesapeake

[@itsalexnow1223]

It's really difficult to make change when nobody in power wants to. They're being too kind here.