Polluted Chesapeake to hurt crab, oyster seasons

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Seafood lovers beware: a troubling report on the Chesapeake Bay may put a damper on your summertime dinner plans.

Researchers are predicting fewer crabs, oysters and rockfish this summer due to worsening conditions in the Chesapeake Bay. An analysis found low oxygen conditions and blooms of harmful algae.

"This forecast of relatively bleak conditions means that we're probably not going to enjoy a bountiful harvest," says Dr. William Dennison, vice president of Science Applications at the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science. "The wet winter and spring set the stage for poor conditions in the next few months."

The Chesapeake Bay Program, a federal-state partnership that monitors cleanup efforts, says the Susquehanna River, which runs through New York and Pennsylvania before entering the Chesapeake, will again be the biggest source of Chesapeake pollution.

"The problems are coming from our backyards, our barnyards and our boat yards. It's everything that we're doing on land that's creating the nutrient sediment input into the Bay," says Dennison. "We need fertilizer -- we need dirt on land to grow crops. We don't need them in the Bay to smother oysters."

Harmful algae blooms in the Bay, known as microcystis, have caused beach closures in the past due to their toxicity.

Dennison suggests using less fertilizer and reducing storm water run-off to help improve Bay conditions.

This year is the fourth summer the program has put out a summer forecast, and so far all have showed similar problems. The program stopped doing bar grass forecasts this year because they've been inaccurate in the past.

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