Bay Journal

Topics: Fisheries

The restoration of reefs in Maryland oyster sanctuaries may be unpopular with watermen, but a recent study predicts the effort will eventually yield a bonanza for the commercial seafood industry, with bigger harvests of blue crabs and white perch.

Ecological modeling done by Morgan State University’s Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory in Calvert County projects an 80% increase in blue crab harvests and a 110% jump in white perch catch in the Choptank and Little Choptank river systems, where large-scale oyster restoration projects have been under way since 2011.

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Timothy B. Wheeler
June 25, 2019
Fisheries
0 Comments

Biologists fear catfish spread after last year’s record deluge

Last year’s record-setting rainfall brought more into the Chesapeake Bay than pollution and debris. Biologists say the freshwater deluge helped the nonnative blue catfish, which was already invading the estuary, to spread farther in the...

Karl Blankenship
June 10, 2019
Fisheries
1 Comment

MD bans foam food containers, passes Clean Energy Jobs act

Maryland’s foam ban and ambitious clean energy goals have become law. A bid to change how the state regulates its oyster industry got tripped up — at least for this year. Gov. Larry Hogan last week let the foam ban and clean...

Timothy B. Wheeler
May 31, 2019
Energy,Fisheries,Pollution
1 Comment

UMCES report: Low health scores rain on Chesapeake Bay’s recovery

A year of historically heavy rainfall strained the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem — but not past the breaking point, according to a wide-ranging assessment released Tuesday. The estuary’s overall health score in 2018 dropped from...

Jeremy Cox
May 22, 2019
Fisheries,Pollution
1 Comment

Fisheries: Archives

Chesapeake blue crab population grows despite 2018’s rains

Last year’s never-ending loop of storms may have rattled the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem, but it didn’t scuttle the estuary’s blue crab population. Results from the annual, Baywide winter crab survey, released May 6,...

Jeremy Cox
May 07, 2019
Fisheries
1 Comment

MD, VA legislatures tackle oyster issues with mixed reactions

Oysters got attention from lawmakers this year in both Maryland and Virginia, but the issue sparked bitter debates in Annapolis. Maryland lawmakers overcame Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto to forbid future commercial harvests from five oyster...

Timothy B. Wheeler
May 06, 2019
Fisheries
0 Comments

MD bans plastic foam containers, VA passes plan for coal ash

The third time’s the charm, it seems. After balking twice before, Maryland lawmakers this year adopted the nation’s first statewide ban on polystyrene foam food and drink containers. In Virginia, legislators agreed after two years...

Timothy B. Wheeler
May 06, 2019
Energy,Fisheries,Pollution
0 Comments

ASMFC says rockfish harvests need to be cut 17 percent

East Coast fishery managers last week took the first steps toward cutting the striped bass harvest 17 percent next year to help end overfishing of the popular species, which has been in decline for years. Options about how the harvest should...

Karl Blankenship
May 06, 2019
Fisheries
4 Comments

Virginia closes striped bass trophy season as ASMFC weighs action

This story has been updated from the original published on April 19, 2019. Virginia and two New England states are urging other East Coast fishery managers to move quickly to curb striped bass catches in the wake of a new assessment that...

Karl Blankenship
April 24, 2019
Fisheries
5 Comments

Otsego bass: the fish that didn’t go away, thanks to some help

Scientists around Cooperstown, NY, are celebrating a rare victory: the slow return of a native species in Otsego Lake. There, in the upstate lake that spawns the Susquehanna River headwaters, the whitefish known as “Otsego bass”...

Donna Morelli
April 23, 2019
Fisheries
0 Comments

MD lawmakers override Hogan’s veto, protect oyster sanctuaries undergoing restoration

The Maryland General Assembly on Monday overrode Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of legislation aimed at preventing harvests from oyster sanctuaries in five Chesapeake Bay tributaries that the state has targeted for large-scale restoration. By...

Timothy B. Wheeler
April 08, 2019
Fisheries,Politics + Policy
0 Comments

Hogan vetoes oyster sanctuary bill

With Maryland’s watermen urging him to do so, Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday vetoed legislation that would block any changes to the boundaries of oyster sanctuaries in five Chesapeake Bay tributaries without legislative approval....

Timothy B. Wheeler
April 05, 2019
Fisheries,Politics + Policy
3 Comments

Hogan holds up Mallows Bay sanctuary to address watermen’s fears of losing livelihood

It’s been four and a half years since the state of Maryland asked the federal government to make Mallows Bay a national marine sanctuary to safeguard the final resting place of a “ghost fleet” of World War I–era ships...

Timothy B. Wheeler
April 03, 2019
Conservation + Land Use,Fisheries,Politics + Policy,Wildlife + Habitat
1 Comment

MD legislators increase protection for oyster sanctuaries in 5 Bay tributaries

Oyster sanctuaries in five Chesapeake Bay tributaries selected by Maryland for large-scale restoration projects will get an extra level of protection from commercial harvest under legislation approved in Annapolis this week. Maryland...

Timothy B. Wheeler
March 29, 2019
Fisheries,Politics + Policy
1 Comment

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