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Marine Spotlight
Learning to Read Rip Currents Could Save Lives
 As the season’s first hurricanes swing near the U.S. coast, churning
out large waves, they bring the threat of dangerous rip currents all
along the Atlantic Seaboard.
On the beach at Ocean City, Maryland, nearly a hundred lifeguards have
their eyes trained on the waves, watching swimmers and looking for
telltale signs of rip currents. Located right in the middle of the East
Coast, Ocean City draws crowds of beachgoers from the Mid-Atlantic and
beyond. The lifeguards know that rip currents can put swimmers’ lives
at risk –– most drownings on American beaches are rip current drownings.
[more] |
Chesapeake Quarterly Wins Awards
 This year
Chesapeake Quarterly took home
two Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX) for articles focused on
the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. This is the fourth year in a row
that the magazine has been so honored.
[more] |
Poisoned Waters: Frontline to focus on Chesapeake Bay
On April 21, “Frontline,” the acclaimed documentary series, turns its camera eye on the demise of two of the nation’s coastal jewels, the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound. Entitled “Poisoned Waters,” the two-hour documentary will describe the sorry condition of two treasured estuaries, one on the East coast and one on the West. Both bodies of water have drawn thousands to live, work, and play along their shores, and both have suffered from development, runoff, and weak political will.
[more] |
Swan Song for a Multicultural Marine Science Program?
 For the last nine summers, Ben “Doc” Cuker, a professor at Hampton
University in Virginia, has taught sailing and more to college students
from diverse backgrounds. Each June and July, his Multicultural
Students at Sea Together (MAST) program takes these students on a
four-week adventure aboard
The Chesapeake
to learn about marine science and local minority heritage. On average,
Cuker (pronounced Sue-ker) has recruited 59% African Americans, 28%
Hispanics and 9% Native Americans.
But this summer, his student sailors may have navigated
The Chesapeake along its final Bay voyage.
[more] |
Loss of Seasonal Workers in Maryland's Crab Industry Takes Toll on Domestic Jobs, Study Finds
The region’s blue crab industry faces more than declining crab stocks
and tight regulations, according to a new analysis by the University of
Maryland’s Sea Grant Extension Program. Restrictive controls on foreign
guest workers, who have become key in the crab picking industry, are
causing an adverse economic impact on both revenues and domestic jobs.
[more] |
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