No matter what your socioeconomic class, political party, or views of the government may be, if you love Chesapeake Bay fishing and the other opportunities our beautiful Bay affords us, you should be scared. Very scared.
Since the Chesapeake Bay Agreement was originally signed in 1983 and the Chesapeake Executive Council was formed, state and federal agencies have spent a huge amount of time, effort, and money attempting to clean up the Bay. But in those same 42 years the population living in the Bay watershed has grown by roughly 45 percent, to an elbow-banging 18.6 million people. Countless roads, shopping centers, and parking lots have been built. There have been many successes and failures for the Bay, many improvements and many disasters. The bottom line? All of the cost and all the effort to save it have essentially held the line. Look at the Bay Health Report Cards going back to 1986 and you’ll find that they start right around a score of 50 out of 100, bounce around, and come in right around a 50 today.
Just imagine where we’d be right now if the Agreement had never been signed and the past 42 years of growth had gone on unchecked and unbalanced. Would the water be clean enough that you’d be willing to reach in to unhook a fish? Would you even consider eating it? How many fish would there be to catch in the first place?
As we prepare this April edition to go to press, in the past week the Maryland Department of Legislative Services has recommended cutting environmental programming by 42 percent and the Trump administration announced a 65 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service have been gutted of hundreds of scientists, with the exact level of the firings TBD. There have also been mass firings at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Forest Service, among others.
All of these agencies play significant roles in the work that was being done to restore and protect the Bay. And while it’s a sure bet that all of them suffered from some level of waste and mismanagement, it’s just as sure a bet that they all contributed substantially to holding the line against degraded water quality, the loss of underwater grasses, over-nutrification, and expanding dead zones. We know without question that they contributed to the development of oyster sanctuaries, fisheries research, erosion prevention, runoff reduction, and shoreline restoration. And while we can all probably agree that flushing out wasteful spending is a good thing, flushing the Chesapeake down the toilet with it definitely is not.
Remember that there was a time in America when rivers literally caught fire and burned. Remember that there was a time when Kepone flowed unchecked into the James River, causing Virginia seafood to be blacklisted. Remember that there are still today 26 toxic Superfund sites in Maryland, 26 in Delaware, 36 in Virginia, and 127 in Pennsylvania. These are all vestiges of a time when few people were speaking up for the Bay and the government did little or nothing to protect it, much less restore it. The Chesapeake Bay Agreement embodied our cultural no more.
We were able to hold the line for the past 42 years, but today we’re watching that line crumble before our very eyes. Anyone who loves the Bay—and especially our representatives in Congress and in the state houses—needs to speak up in support of the Chesapeake whenever and wherever possible. With lawsuits being filed by the moment we don’t know where all the firings and budget cuts that recently erupted will lead, but don’t fool yourself. It’s time to be scared for the Chesapeake. Very, very scared.