Illustration By Francis Blake
Ann Pesiri Swanson, executive director, Chesapeake Bay Commission
“The Bay is defined by fifty rivers and thousands of miles of streams, creeks, and ditches that drain into its 64,000-square-mile watershed. It’s these rivers that define both the essence and the health of the estuary. For the Chesapeake Bay to be restored, it must be tackled one river at a time. The residents living on these rivers must join forces with government and focus on tackling their river’s problems. I have no doubt that if the rivers’ problems were corrected, the Bay would be restored.”
John Page Williams, senior naturalist, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
“It’s nitrogen pollution. We’ve got the Bay on a super-size diet of nitrogen. It’s fertilizer, and fertilizer is good for the Bay in the same sense that food is good for us. But right now we are feeding it, on average, the human equivalent of a 15,000-calories-a-day diet. So we shouldn’t be surprised that the system is as unbalanced as it is. The issue is, as Pogo, the comic strip possum, once said, ÔWe have met the enemy, and he is us.’ Nitrogen pollution comes from a wide range of human sources, including sewage, agriculture, polluted run-off from urban and suburban areas, and even motor vehicle exhaust. But there are solutions that will work given half a chance. We know how to improve sewage treatment. We know a lot about reducing agricultural pollution. We’re even beginning to learn something about treating urban and suburban storm-water run-off. The issue is going out there and making the improvements. It will cost money to make these changes, but we must think about what it will cost us if we don’t.”
Buddy Hance, president of the Maryland Farm Bureau and grain/greenhouse farmer, Port Republic, Md.
“The lack of oysters. They’re natural filters - one adult oyster filters between twenty to fifty gallons per day. The nutrients that feed into the Chesapeake Bay, no matter where they come from, they need to be absorbed. When we had an abundance of oysters, we didn’t have the magnitude of problems we have now.”
Gerald W. Donovan, owner, Chesapeake Beach Hotel & Spa/mayor of Chesapeake Beach, Md.
“I think it’s a simple problem. It’s called political will. Everyone knows what needs to be done, from the air pollution to run-off from farms to discharge from wastewater treatment facilities. It requires the leadership to make the changes occur in the whole watershed.”
Ed Merrifield, Potomac Riverkeeper
“Sediment. What needs to be done is developers who put sediment into the streams should have to pay serious fines. If local governments enforced serious fines, it would cut down on extra sediment.”
Paula Jasinski, former president, South River Federation, and NOAA scientist, Annapolis, Md.
“I think the largest problem is non-point source pollution, which includes run-off from agricultural and urban lands, leaking septic systems, and air pollution. Even in the South River, where there are no large industries in our part of the watershed, we are finding high levels of heavy metals, organic compounds, and other toxics. We also find levels of E. coli way above EPA acceptable levels for swimming. The public is very often unaware of these problems. That’s why watershed groups like South River Federation and riverkeepers are so important to the overall clean-up effort.”
Mark Carter, Earth Sports director, Quest Fitness & Kayak, Lewes, Del.
“I used to live blocks from the Bay in the Norfolk area. Every day I walked the beach I’d collect at least one bag of litter. This was extremely disheartening. Trash, litter, rubbish, whatever you want to call it, is a big problem. Yet, it’s not a difficult one to fix. Pick it up (even if you didn’t put it there) and do your part! And being a surfer and a kayak guide, I love pulling up to the ocean or Bay and seeing glassy waves to surf or a nice reflective sea surface to paddle upon. Sometimes we will pull up to the water, and the client will say, ÔLook at how the water is shimmering. It’s so beautiful.’ÊUnfortunately, some days these glassy conditions are due to oil slicks in the water. This is pollution that can be reduced by diligently maintaining our powerboat engines, recycling oil from our vehicles, and being cognizant of what we pour down our drains."Ê
Bob Reed, owner, Bob-A-Long Charters, Kilmarnock, Va.
“One of the biggest problems is uncontrolled commercial fishing of menhaden in the Virginia portion of the Bay. While purse seining for menhaden is restricted in Maryland waters, Virginia fishermen are allowed to remove these extremely valuable filter feeders without restrictions. It also removes food for stripped bass and other fin fish. The Virginia Marine Regulatory Commission needs to be in control of the menhaden fisheries.”
Ed Farley, skipjack captain/waterman, St. Michaels, Md.
“We’ve worked for a lot of years to determine the scientific reasons the Bay is declining. In spite of knowing what the problems are, we aren’t really changing the way we live, and that’s the real problem. There’s a huge delay between having the knowledge of a problem, having the political will and economic strength to implement a program to improve it, and seeing the results. For example, we’ve known since the early 1980s that the Bay’s nutrient problem should focus as much on nitrates as it does on phosphates, but we’ve only recently appropriated the federal monies to improve some of the sewage treatment plants to reduce the nitrate flow into the Bay. That’s a twenty-year delay from having the knowledge to implementing a program.”
Jack Russell, skipjack captain/co-founder of Chesapeake Bay Field Labs, St. George Island, Md.
“St. George Island used to be two-hundred-people strong as a fishing community, and now there are only three or four making a living out on the water. We are losing a culture here. We have destroyed the habitat of the Chesapeake Bay by flooding it with people and industry. We’re like a runaway train, and the people still enjoying what’s left of the Bay life are on the caboose hanging on to anything they can. Perhaps education is the key out of this mess. I became an environmental educator in 1985 to teach kids to be responsible users of the Chesapeake, to use the tools of maritime culture such as a skipjack, an oyster house, and try to enlighten them so that they become better stewards of the Bay than my generation was. Up to this point, we’ve had 60,000 kids on this boat. Perhaps we’ll make a wee bit of difference.”
William Donald Schaefer, Maryland comptroller
“People. We’ve got to get more individuals involved in cleaning up the Bay, people willing to share responsibility for improving its condition. Each of us has a part to play, no matter how small it may seem. One person can make a difference.”
Joseph E. Chisholm, Sr., poultry grower/president of Delmarva Poultry Industry, Georgetown, Del.
“There are lots of groups responsible for the Bay’s problems beyond the farming community. We have too many people. We have the highest population of any bay in the world. And the sewage treatment plants are part of the problem. The suburban homeowner who over-fertilizes his lawn is part of the problem. Even the tourist who drives up and down the streets is part of the problem. You can’t point a finger at any one group. It’s all of our responsibility.”
David Norris, Southern Maryland singer/songwriter, Hollywood, Md.
“It’s real simple. It has to be pollution - on an industrial level and an individual level. I went rock fishing in the Bay recently and caught some really big ones but also caught some that had lesions on them. You have to wonder about the bacteria in the water that would cause such infection. When I used to take my grandson to the beach, we’d always spend time picking up trash on the beach. It troubles me that people will use such a beautiful resource like the Bay and just not care for it. People just have to care more. There’s a level of social consciousness that needs to be raised.”
Hal Ashman, owner, Ultimate Water Sports, president of the Marshy Point Nature Center, Middle River, Md.
“The Bay’s biggest problem is us. Simple things we do every day, like spilling oil or gasoline in the streets, not recycling or properly disposing of our waste, all affect the Bay. The only solution is to educate children to become much more responsible about how they live. Adults don’t seem to realize the effect of a single household on a resource as huge as the Chesapeake. It’s too late to change the way adults think, but we can still teach the children. It needs to be in their classrooms, in their curriculum. We need to get them to the Bay so that they can see first-hand how so many of the things they do in their daily lives ultimately affect the health of the Bay.”
