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Science News
Path to Bay Recovery May Cross Unexpected Thresholds, Report Finds
 If restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay succeed in dropping
nutrient loads to target levels, scientists and managers should expect
the Bay to respond in unexpected ways, according to a new report
released today by the Chesapeake Bay Program Science and Technical
Advisory Committee (STAC) and Maryland Sea Grant.
The Bay may experience threshold-type responses, researchers say.
Improved water clarity, for example, might cause recovery to occur in a
sudden burst. Underwater grasses could flourish and help to jumpstart
key processes. Identifying such thresholds for recovery could help
steer resources in a targeted manner –– towards or away from specific
outcomes –– and help to better manage public expectations for the Bay’s
response as nutrient loads decline, according to scientists.
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Chesapeake Quarterly
Seafood & the Bay
The Chesapeake is
synonymous with oysters,
crabs, and fish, but can
Bay seafood survive in a
global market?
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Marine Spotlight
Anthropologist on the Bay
 The blue crab industry faces tough times as crab stocks falter and new
regulations come online. While world-class research has focused on the
biology and ecology of the blue crab, less attention has focused on the
crabbers — on the social and human dimensions of a culture that has
come to depend on the Bay and especially on the blue crab.
That’s the message from Dr. Michael Paolisso, an anthropologist at the
University of Maryland, College Park, who’s studied the culture of
watermen on the Bay. Paolisso has analyzed the worldviews or “cultural
models” of watermen and compared them to the views of scientists,
environmentalists, and managers.
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Landmark Book on the Blue Crab
 The Maryland Sea Grant College has published the first-ever comprehensive reference book on the blue crab. The 800-page volume,
The Blue Crab: Callinectes sapidus, brings together the work of 28 authors in 16 chapters to cover the spectrum of blue crab biology and ecology.
The book details blue crab anatomy and addresses larval, juvenile, and adult development. It also covers diseases and parasites, the ecology of all life stages, population dynamics, and the history of blue crab fisheries in the U.S.
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Bay & Coast News