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Budget, research priorities of Congress cloud Sea Grant future
Maryland considers 'catch share' program for blue crab fishery
New fisheries plans would put emphasis on ecosystems
The small Bayside town of North Beach on Maryland's lower Western Shore was founded in 1910 and its economy has been built around the beach for which it is named.
Today, the town's beach-one of the few remaining public beaches along the Chesapeake-is washing away at an accelerating pace, threatening the town's tourist economy.
"The beach created the town," said Mayor Michael Bojokles. "Now, 100 years later, we are on the verge of losing what we have. Tourism dollars are the lifeblood of our local businesses."
Bojokles was among the citizens and scientists who presented testimony to members of Congress from two natural resource subcommittees at a hearing on the impact of climate change on the Chesapeake Bay.
Many of those who offered testimony June 23 at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater pleaded for Congress to act to control greenhouse gas emissions to protect the Bay, and the way of life of those who depend upon it.
"Coastal communities of people dependent on the Bay for their livelihoods are engaged in a desperate struggle to restore the Bay and the bounty that lives in it," said Tommy Leggett, a waterman and shellfish farmer who also works for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
"We are only now beginning to realize what we are also doing to the atmosphere and the oceans, and the effect that it will have on the Bay and other estuaries and coastal areas worldwide. On behalf of coastal people in communities around the globe, I urge you to do all you can to slow down the effects of climate change."
The issue has moved up on the national agenda with Congress considering climate change legislation and the EPA considering the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile, an executive order signed by President Barack Obama on May 12 directs federal agencies involved with the Bay to develop a strategy to adapt their programs to lessen the impact of changing climate on water quality and living resources in the Bay and its watershed.
With temperatures predicted to rise 5 to 9 degrees by the end of the century, and the rate of sea level rise expected to accelerate, the Bay and its watershed is likely to undergo dramatic changes in the coming decades.
"We cannot provide a detailed forecast for when and exactly how the Bay may change," said Robert Wood, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's director of the Cooperative Oxford Laboratory in Easton, MD.
But, he said, warming temperatures, changes in salinity and higher sea level would over time "have far-reaching impacts on a wide variety of important processes, organisms and habitats throughout the Bay ecosystem."
He and others outlined a host of changes that could be in store.
The frequency of harmful algae blooms could increase as warming conditions and higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere create conditions that promote their growth.
Winter and spring precipitation is likely to increase, washing more nutrients into the Bay and magnifying the size of its oxygen-starved "dead zone." That would be compounded because water also holds less oxygen as it warms.
Eelgrass, the dominant seagrass in the lower Bay, will decline and possibly disappear because of its low tolerance to warm temperatures.
The timing of migration and spawning for fish will likely change. That could be a problem for the young of some species whose spawning is timed to occur when they can take advantage of certain prey, which may no longer be present.
Changes in Bay salinity and temperature would likely create conditions that make the Bay more conducive to invasive species.
Warmer water temperatures and increased nutrients could increase the abundance of pathogenic bacteria that cause diseases in fish, shellfish and humans. Warmer water would also be more favorable to the spread of Dermo, a disease that plagues oysters in the Bay.
Increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would make Bay water, like ocean water, more acidic. Among the consequences would be thinner oyster and clam shells, and a possible decline in important plankton species that have shells.
Chesapeake water levels, already rising faster than the global average, will further accelerate, increasing coastal flooding, speeding coastal erosion and submerging tidal wetlands.
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge has already lost about 8,000 acres of wetlands, and most of the refuge is expected to be under water in about 50 years, said Marvin Moriarty, northeast regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "These marshes are used by millions of waterfowl, shorebirds, bald eagles and other bird species, and refuge managers are working to restore them where practicable and feasible while securing habitats farther upland to plan for future marsh habitat needs."
The problem of climate change is one that can no longer be put off, said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science.
"Global climate change is not just something in the Chesapeake Bay's future," he said. "Evidence is building that it has already resulted in changes in the Bay environment over the past several decades."
Records at the UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory on Solomon's Island shows water temperatures have warmed by about 2 degrees since since the 1960s, Boesch said.
He also warned that the overall impact of climate change would be to make Bay cleanup efforts more difficult, as nutrient runoff associated with more winter and spring precipitation would require more control efforts than currently anticipated. Further, the loss of tidal marshes would reduce the Bay's natural ability to remove nutrients.
"There are two corollary implications for Bay restoration," Boesch said. "First, the impacts of climate change must be factored into restoration goals and actions. No longer should this be put off as too hypothetical, too political or too daunting. Second, mitigating the causes of climate change to avoid dangerous extreme changes should become part of the Bay restoration agenda."
Boesch said the nation had done little to reduce the effects of climate change, or to begin adapting to its impacts, over the past decade and urged Congress to "make up for this lost time" by passing legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Not all of the action needs to be taken at the federal level. Skip Stiles, director of Wetlands Watch, said states have done little to plan-or help local governments plan-for impacts of climate change, especially sea level rise. As a result, roads and other development continue to take place along threatened shorelines.
"There is no longer any excuse for what we are allowing along our shorelines as we permit inappropriate and unsustainable development that is encumbering our grandchildren with a huge debt to be paid to restore the Chesapeake Bay," Stiles said.
Climate change also has a cultural element for the Bay. Islands that once had vibrant communities are losing ground to sea level rise, and several have disappeared altogether.
"We are at risk of losing important chapters of our history, our culture, our identity," said Stuart Parnes, president of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD. "If 50 or 100 years from now our great-grandchildren have to visit places like the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to see the surviving relics of what was once a rich and varied coastal culture born of and nourished by the waters of the Bay, then we all will have failed."
