Maryland Sea Grant Wins Prizes for Chesapeake Quarterly

For the third year in a row, the Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX) competition has honored Maryland Sea Grant’s efforts to provide citizens with in-depth, creditable information about issues facing Chesapeake Bay.

The writers and editors of Chesapeake Quarterly, Maryland Sea Grant’s signature publication, took home two prestigious APEX awards. Erica Goldman received an award for “science and environment writing” for her feature article on the power of the Bay’s “other filter feeders” — like mussels and clams — to clean up Chesapeake waters in an era when the oyster, the Chesapeake’s major filter feeder, is in steep decline (Vol. 6, No. 2). Michael Fincham received a “magazine and journal writing” award for his in-depth look at Pfiesteria on the tenth anniversary of the “hysteria” set in motion by the appearance of this algal cell in Maryland’s Pocomoke River (Vol. 6, No. 1).

Now in its twentieth year, the APEX competition received nearly 4,500 entries for 2008. Writing That Works, a newsletter for professional writers, editors, and communicators, sponsors the competition. Judges evaluate submissions based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and overall communications effectiveness.

In 2007, APEX recognized the Chesapeake Quarterly issue devoted to the devastating oyster disease MSX (Vol. 5, No. 2) as well as a profile by Jack Greer on the riverkeeper for the South River, whose job is to defend the river against pollution and to serve as its eyes, ears, and voice (Vol. 4, No. 4).

Maryland Sea Grant has also won APEX awards for its field guide, Underwater Grasses in Chesapeake Bay & Mid-Atlantic Coastal Waters and for the writing and design of four education display panels on Hurricane Isabel, a storm that destroyed property and flooded towns up and down the Bay.

For more information on the competition visit www.apexawards.com. For more on Chesapeake Quarterly, now in its seventh year, see www.mdsg.umd.edu/CQ.

-- Jessica Smits