The Cause and Effect of the Chesapeake Bay's Oyster Decline on the Bay

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The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It holds 18 hundred trillion gallons of water. The Bay is about 200 miles long, and is home to more than 17 million people. The importance of the Chesapeake Bay is incredible; two of the United States’ five major North Atlantic ports – Baltimore and Hampton Roads – are on the Bay. (Chesapeake Bay Program, n/d). The Chesapeake Bay provides shelter and food to all living things in the surrounding area. Both, people and animals, use the Bays resources every day and have done so for centuries.

One of the Bays biggest resources is its oysters. Oysters are filter feeders which mean they feed on agley and clean the water. The oysters feed on agley and other pollutants in the bay turning them into food, then they condense the food down to nutrients and sometimes developed pearls. Filtering the water helps the oysters to grow, and also helps clean the Chesapeake Bay. One oyster can filter 50 gallons of water a day, Oysters used to be able to filter the Bay in about a week. However, these creatures are now scarce in the bay. The Chesapeake Bays Oyster (crassostrea virginica) Population has declined severely because of over harvesting, agricultural runoff, and disease. Now the Chesapeake Bay is becoming polluted without the oysters and the water is not nearly as clean as it once was. The Chesapeake Bay was the first estuary in the nation to be targeted for restoration as an integrated watershed and ecosystem. (Chesapeake Bay Program n/d). This report will show the cause and effect of the Chesapeake Bay's Oyster decline on the Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay means ‘Great shellfish Bay’ in Algonquin(Chesapeake Bay Foundation 2010). The bay was once plentiful with Oysters dating back...

... middle of paper ...

...vide the businesses income and profit. Because the decline of oysters, Virginia and Maryland lost more than 4 billion dollars in annual losses over the last three decades. Many people lost their jobs, and business had to shutdown.

Works Cited

Chesapeake Bay Foundation.(2010). saving a national treasure

Chesapeake Bay Foundation. (2010). striking back against the Oyster Thieves

Chesapeake Bay Foundation. (n/d). Agriculture

Cronin, L. Eugene. (1986). Fisheries and Resource Stress in the 19th Century

Kennedy, Victor S. and Kent Mountford. (2001). Human Influences on Aquatic Resources in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Stratchy. (1953). The Historie of Travell into Virginia Britania

Chesapeake Bay Program. (n/d). Facts & Figures

Dr. Henry M. Miller. (n/d). The Oyster in Chesapeake Bay History

Virginia Institute of Marine Science. (n/d). Dermo Fact Sheet

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