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Striped bass illness baffles Bay scientists
Striped bass suffer as overfishing eats away at their prey, menhaden
Menhaden stock perplexes fish managers
MD’s striped bass juvenile index 5th highest
Maryland’s 2003 striped bass juvenile index was 25.8, the fifth highest mark in survey’s 50-year history, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reported. The long-term average is 11.9.
The survey historically has been a good predictor of future striped bass populations along the Atlantic Coast, as the Bay is its most important spawning area.
In this year’s survey, the Upper Bay index was the highest documented since 1970. Reproduction in the Potomac and Choptank rivers was more than double their historic averages. Reproduction in the Nanticoke River was slightly above average.
Most anadromous fish, which are species that migrate from the ocean to fresh water to spawn, showed very poor reproduction during the drought conditions of 2002. This year, they benefited from the spring rains and mild temperatures, according to DNR biologists.
Besides striped bass, yellow perch in the Upper Bay reproduced at near-record levels while white perch spawned highly successfully in all areas surveyed. American shad reproduction in the Potomac River and Upper Bay was high for the fourth consecutive year.
DNR biologists have monitored the success of striped bass in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake since 1954. Biologists visit the same 22 sites monthly from July through September, collecting fish samples with two sweeps of a 100-foot beach seine net. The index is calculated as the average catch of young striped bass per sample.
MD court refuses to reconsider critical area protection law
The Maryland Court of Appeals has rejected a request from the state that it reconsider an earlier decision that officials say seriously weakens a law regulating shoreline development around the Chesapeake Bay.
The state’s highest court had ruled in July that Wicomico County could not require Edwin Lewis to relocate some buildings he had built without proper permits near a tributary of the Nanticoke River.
In a ruling issued Oct. 14, the court refused the request from the Department of Natural Resources and the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission that it limit the impact of the July decision.
Environmentalists and local government officials sided with the state, saying the court’s action would weaken the protection of land in a 1,000-foot buffer zone around tidal waters.
Responding to the request for reconsideration, Judge Dale R. Cathell said that the state had failed to make its case for a new hearing.
Local government officials and environmentalists will now look to the legislature to amend the law to restore some of the protections erased by the appeals court decision.
“We would encourage the legislature this session to immediately put the legislation in place to override this decision,” said Theresa Pierno, a vice president with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “Otherwise, it’s going to make it very difficult for local jurisdictions to have the enforcement ability they need to deny variances.”
The decision removed the burden on landowners to prove that development would have no adverse environmental impact and required local governments to prove there would be damage if they deny permits to develop property.
“We don’t have the money that developers have to go out and hire experts and environmentalists to come in and help with these cases,” A. Frank Carven III, Harford County attorney, said.
Study affirms value of environmental regulations
A White House study has concluded that environmental regulations are worth their costs to industry and consumers, resulting in significant public health improvements and other benefits to society.
The finding overturned a previous report that officials now say was defective, the Washington Post reported. The new report, issued in September by the Office of Management and Budget, concluded that the health and social benefits of enforcing tough new clean air regulations during the past decade were five to seven times greater in economic terms than were the costs of complying with the rules.
The value of reductions in hospitalization and emergency room visits, premature deaths and lost workdays resulting from improved air quality were estimated between $120 billion and $193 billion from October 1992 to September 2002.
By comparison, industry, states and municipalities spent an estimated $23 billion to $26 billion to retrofit plants and facilities and make other changes to comply with new clean-air standards, which are designed to sharply reduce sulfur dioxide, fine-particle emissions, nitrogen oxides and other health-threatening pollutants.
The report was the most comprehensive study ever of the cost and benefits of regulatory decision-making. A similar OMB report last year concluded that the cost of compliance with a given set of regulations was roughly comparable to the public benefits. But the OMB now says it erred last year in part by vastly understating the benefits of the EPA’s rules establishing national ambient air quality standards for ozone and for particulate matter—a major factor in upper respiratory, heart and lung disorders.
Environmental attorney quits VA Water Control Board
Kay Slaughter resigned from the Virginia State Water Control Board Oct. 2 after Republicans complained about a meeting she had with federal officials to discuss a proposed reservoir.
Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, was among those who raised questions about Slaughter’s meeting with EPA officials to discuss a federal permit for the proposed King William Reservoir.
Environmentalists and Native American tribes have fought the reservoir, long sought by the city of Newport News, on the grounds that it would ruin ecologically sensitive fish-spawning habitat and tribal lands.
Slaughter, an environmental attorney from Charlottesville, sent a resignation letter to Gov. Mark Warner stating that she has no conflict of interest on the matter.
When the General Assembly confirmed her appointment in February, Slaughter agreed to not be involved in any issues related to the State Water Control Board permit for the reservoir because she had represented parties suing to block the state permit. Stolle said his recollection of Slaughter’s agreement was that she had said “she would completely remove herself from having anything to do with the reservoir.”
Slaughter said in her letter to Warner that while serving on the board she had continued her environmental advocacy work “unrelated to my service on the Water Board, such as advocacy before federal agencies and other state agencies. Although unrelated to my service on the board, it has become clear that my advocacy work will continue to be the subject of criticism and attack by those who wish to make a political issue of my service on the board.”
Stolle said he had called Anita Rimler, Warner’s secretary of the commonwealth, and asked her to determine whether Slaughter’s meeting with EPA officials violated her agreement. He said the next thing he heard was that Slaughter had resigned. “I think Kay is a very talented person, and it’s unfortunate that she has a conflict or a perceived conflict,” Stolle said.
Seagrass atlas reveals global decline
A first-ever global study of underwater seagrass beds reveals that 15 percent of the world’s underwater meadows have been lost in the last 10 years.
The World Atlas of Seagrasses, prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre estimates that seagrasses cover about 177,000 square kilometers worldwide, an area about two-thirds the size of the United Kingdom.
“We now have a global, scientific view of where seagrasses occur and what is happening to them,” said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP Executive Director. “Unfortunately, the scientists have presented us with a worrying story. In many cases, these vitally important undersea meadows are being needlessly destroyed for short-term gain without a true understanding of their significance.”
The leading causes of seagrass losses, according to the agency, are the runoff of nutrients and sediment from human activities on land; boating; land reclamation and construction in the coastal zone; dredge-and-fill activities; and destructive fisheries practices.
The World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2010 adopted a goal to reverse the decline of seagrasses. The atlas marks the first attempt to map those resources globally.
There are about 60 species of underwater grasses worldwide, which provide habitat for a host of marine life, include threatened species such as manatees, dugongs and green sea turtles.
For information about the atlas, including maps and photographs, visit www.unep.org or www.unep-wcmc.org/marine/seagrassatlas/
MD to halt land purchases
Maryland will halt all land purchases, including those for conservation, until the leaders of several state agencies craft a policy that prioritizes what kind of land should become publicly owned, Gov. Robert Ehrlich announced in October.
“The bottom line to my instruction to this administration is no more land acquisition prior to the implementation of this policy. Period,” Ehrlich said in the meeting of the Board of Public Works, which includes Ehrlich, State Treasurer Nancy Kopp and State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer.
His announcement articulated a drastic change in a policy held by former Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening, who set aside more than 300,000 acres, permanently protecting more land from development than all the previous governors combined.
House Speaker Michael Busch said money already had been set aside for land purchases in the fiscal 2004 budget. That money was allocated for that purpose by the General Assembly, he said. He wants to know more about Ehrlich’s announcement before commenting on it, he said.
Ehrlich named land purchases that will help protect the Chesapeake Bay as his first priority.
