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Great Wicomico site of thriving native oyster reef
All sides weigh in on C. ariakensis introduction to Bay
It's not a matter of which oyster, but if any oyster could thrive in the Bay
Virginia commission approves plans for 3 native oyster farms
Virginia regulators gave the green light to three major Chesapeake Bay oyster projects in April that could raise as many as 25 million native oysters for harvest each year.
In voting unanimously for the private projects, members of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission said they believe that aquaculture will play a vital role in reviving failing oyster stocks in the Bay as well as in aiding a desperate seafood industry.
“It clearly is where we need to go, and where the industry already is going,” commission member J. Carter Fox said.
In addition to its economic benefits, the farmed oysters also help the environment because they are natural filters for excessive nutrients and algae that today are choking the Bay’s ecosystem.
The commission agreed to issue state permits to three companies that want to develop new farms in the Coan and Yeocomico rivers on the Northern Neck peninsula and in the Ware River in Gloucester County. The companies will finance all of the work and pay the state a royalty of more than $4,000 a year.
In the largest project, Cowart Seafood Corp. intends to use hundreds of steel and mesh cages on about 24 acres of hard bottom in the Coan River, a pristine tributary of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay, near the Maryland border.
Company president Lake Cowart said he intends to place about 4 million genetically engineered native oysters in the cages this year and grow them to a 3-inch-minimum market size within 18 months. He expects to get started immediately.
Cowart’s partner, Bevans Oyster Co., intends to raise 2 million of the specially grown natives in cages placed on 20 acres of bottom in the nearby Yeocomico River.
The oysters are sterile and have been engineered not to spawn so they can concentrate their energies on growing fast, going to market before two diseases kill them. The diseases, which do not harm humans, usually kill oysters within two or three years of exposure.
The diseases, MSX and Dermo, are considered the major reasons native stocks in the Bay have been nearly wiped out in the past 50 years. Lost habitat, pollution and overharvesting also are to blame.
Dozens of residents along the Ware River protested plans from Ward Oyster Co. to set as many as 2,500 cages and 10 million oysters in the shallows near their waterfront properties. They said the 2-foot-tall cages, each weighing 100 pounds, will pose hazards to boats and other pleasure craft, will ruin the scenery with hundreds of marker buoys bobbing in the water, and could devalue their homes. The residents already have hired an attorney.
Tenore, retired CBL director, dies
Kenneth R. Tenore, professor and former director of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, died May 7 after battling a severe illness. He had served as director of the lab, located on Solomons Island, from 1984 until he stepped down to become a member of the faculty in 2005. He was only the fourth director of CBL after its founding in 1925 by Dr. Reginald V. Truitt.
“Ken Tenore’s wisdom, grounding in the best traditions, and penchant for innovation will be greatly missed,” UMCES President Donald Boesch said.
His legacy to the lab has been threefold: greatly improved facilities; an outstanding faculty, many of whom he personally recruited; and highly regarded programs in environmental chemistry and toxicology.
As director he led collaborative research programs involving marine scientists from the United States, the Galicia region of Spain and Portugal. At the time of his death, he was leading the Navigator Project, an international effort supported by the National Science Foundation and the Luso-American Foundation, to characterize and compare the ecology of coastal seas around the world.
Tenore founded and directed the Alliance for Coastal Technologies, a partnership of research institutions, environmental managers and industry representatives that fosters sensor technologies for use in environmental monitoring in the coastal zone. While at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute from 1972–1975 and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography from 1975–1983 he was a pioneer in understanding how plant detritus moves into the marine food chain.
Tenore was also a dedicated teacher who developed and taught a course in science and ethics with collaborators from the University of Notre Dame’s Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values.
Kaine names new VMRC head
Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine in May named Steven G. Bowman Commissioner of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Previously, Bowman served as deputy commissioner and chief of law enforcement for the VMRC and has served with the agency for 14 years. Prior to that, Bowman was chief deputy sheriff in the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office.
Bowman replaces William Pruitt, who headed the VMRC since 1983, and announced his retirement earlier this year. The commission manages saltwater fishing in the state and regulates activities that take place in tidal waters.
Author seeks ‘pro-Bay’ candidates
Frustrated with too many politicians who he says only pay “lip service” to the issue, the author of a book critical of Bay restoration efforts has launched a new program to identify “pro-Chesapeake” candidates for public office.
Howard Ernst, a political science professor affiliated with the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Virginia and author of “Chesapeake Bay Blues,” plans to review the records of public office seekers and announce “blue crab candidates” who would be most supportive of the Bay’s restoration.
Ernst said the designation is not an endorsement, but rather an assessment of candidates’ past records to determine if they have a commitment to environmental restoration, believe the Bay is worth restoring and will work across party and jurisdictional lines in finding solutions.
He said environmental groups have difficulty making such judgments because they risk losing their tax-exempt status. His initial effort is focused on races in central Maryland. If it proves successful, he hopes his “blue crab movement” will expand watershedwide.
Rendell wants alternative fuel in each gallon of gas in PA
Gov. Ed Rendell wants to require transportation fuels sold in Pennsylvania to be blended with cleaner-burning alternative fuels produced domestically.
He made the announcement in May to coincide with the opening of a WoGo ethanol fueling station about 30 miles southeast of Harrisburg in Lititz. It’s the first station in Pennsylvania—and the Northeast —to offer an 85 percent ethanol blend to the public.
Requiring the blends is part of Rendell’s wider ambition to find alternatives to the hundreds of millions of gallons of transportation fuel made from Persian Gulf oil that are used in Pennsylvania each year.
Shifting to fuel sources like ethanol will also create more local industries and jobs, result in cleaner air and stabilize the price of gas, he said.
Rendell did not specify a percentage blend or a time frame in which to accomplish it, but said he would seek to have the initiative proposed in legislation by July 31. Eligible alternative fuels could be derived from coal, crops, timber, soybeans and methane gas from landfills and coal mines.
Four states—Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana and Washington— have a fuel standard for ethanol or biodiesel; others are considering it. Ethanol can be fermented from organic material like corn and timber. Biodiesel is a soy-based product. Most states, including Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia, have at least one gas station that provides the 85 percent ethanol blend, or E85, to the general public, according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.
But only a fraction of the vehicles on the road are built to accept E85 — typically large trucks and luxury sedans.
About four out of every 10 gallons of gas sold in the country is mixed with ethanol, usually at a 10 percent blend, said Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Fuels Association. Some is sold specifically to help heavily populated areas, such as metropolitan Philadelphia, meet federal air quality standards. All cars can accept the 10 percent ethanol blend.
Last chance sites named in MD
Seven “last chance to see” scenic and historic sites—so named because they are threatened by neglect or development—were designated by Scenic Maryland, a nonprofic conservation group.
The sites include the C&O Canal and Potomac River corridor; the Potomac-to-Doubs Route of the Underground Railroad in Frederic County; Scenic Route 40 in Allegany County; the Chincoteague Bay; Bucktown Village in Dorchester County; the tobacco barns of St. Mary’s County; and the historic Charles Street corridor in Baltimore.
The designation offers no legally binding protections for the sites, but Elizabeth Buxton, Scenic Maryland’s executive director said it should help raise awareness and build support for protecting the areas.
Utility donates 5 miles of Susquehanna riverfront
Almost 1,000 acres along 5 miles of Susquehanna River shoreline in Pennsylvania’s York and Lancaster counties were recently donated to a national environmental group for permanent protection.
Safe Harbor Water Power Corp., a subsidiary of Constellation Energy and PPL Corp., announced it would donate the land, which includes riparian woods and bluffs, as well as islands, to the Conservation Fund.
The donated property includes Conejohela Flats, which provides important feeding and resting areas for migratory birds and habitat for rare species such as the bald eagle, black tern and osprey.
