Science to Policy

Managing the Chesapeake Bay and its coastal resources requires the very best scientific information available, combined with sound judgment and a keen sense of the region's economy, culture, and history.

Since 1977, Maryland Sea Grant has supported scientific research and policy studies focused on the stewardship and wise use of the region's invaluable natural assets. Of special interest are the commercial fisheries of the Chesapeake Bay, oysters, blue crabs, and striped bass, as well as concerns, such as harmful algal blooms and invasive species.

Maryland Sea Grant College has cooperated, for example, with the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to help analyze the status of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab fishery and to explore innovations in fisheries management. Sea Grant has also examined the economic value of the striped bass fishery, the value of the state's recreational boating industry, and the potential economic impacts of selected fisheries regulations.

In addition, much of the research that Maryland Sea Grant supports generates results with direct policy applications. For example, Sea Grant-funded research helped to refine estimates of denitrification rates for the Chesapeake Bay, a critical component of the Bay water quality model, and has helped establish protocols for effective restoration of multi-species underwater grass beds in Chesapeake Bay and other coastal ecosystems.

Maryland Sea Grant has also launched, through an EPA-sponsored Environmental Finance Center, investigations into how communities support and fund their important environmental projects, including wastewater and stormwater controls. Finally, Sea Grant has supported inquiries into the Chesapeake region's sense of place, to help deepen our understanding of what citizens care about most intensely, what they hope to change, and what they hope to preserve.