Latest news with #ChesapeakeBayFoundation
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Reality TV star sparks outrage after sharing video of shocking scene at local beach: 'This is unacceptable'
The internet makes it increasingly easy for anyone to witness a wide range of environmental issues, regardless of their location. In a recent TikTok post, Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt), an American reality television star who probably wasn't on your bingo card to appear in an article for raising awareness about pollution, shared a troubling video of toxic runoff. "Look at this water," Pratt says in the video as he pans the camera, showing dirty, mucky water at the edge of the ocean. "That's before they even bring the toxic waste down from town." Toxic runoff, or runoff pollution, is created when rainwater or melted snow runs off the streets, carrying with it harmful waste or substances, trickling down until it reaches water sources, the Environmental Protection Agency explained. "Runoff picks up fertilizer, oil, pesticides, dirt, bacteria and other pollutants as it makes its way through storm drains and ditches - untreated - to our streams, rivers, lakes and the ocean," it said in its report. While there is a limited amount of runoff in natural areas, due to soil, fields, and plants being able to absorb most of the water, urban areas are much different. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, "Close to 100 percent of the rain that falls on concrete and other hard surfaces produces runoff. One inch of rain falling on an acre of hardened surface produces 27,000 gallons of runoff." Earlier this year, people in Los Angeles were warned against drinking the water or going into local water sources, due to the extensive runoff from heavy rains following the LA wildfires. Furthermore, new research has shown that storm runoff is a silent contributor to microplastic pollution. As urban areas have asphalt, concrete, and even rubber pavement, the runoff picks up the microplastics these materials possess as they break down, and carries the microplastic particles into the ocean with the water. Commenters on the TikTok video showed their distress about the polluted runoff. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. One person said, "This is unacceptable….how does our government allow this BS." "This is actually insane…wow," someone else added. "Thanks for sharing all of this." To do your part in protecting the Earth, you can educate yourself on key climate issues, such as toxic runoff. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
US oyster gardeners rebuild nature's own water-cleaning system
For many just a tasty delicacy, the oyster may actually be the hero the world needs to fight environmental degradation -- and volunteers like Kimberly Price are battling to repopulate the surprisingly powerful species. The 53-year-old is an "oyster gardener" who fosters thousands of the mollusks at her waterside home until they are old enough to be planted in the Chesapeake Bay near the US capital Washington, where they clean the water and can even offset climate change. Far removed from the menus of seafood restaurants, oysters also have a supremely practical use as prolific water filters -- with an adult able to process up to 50 gallons (190 liters) each day. This produces a healthier habitat, boosting plant and animal life, which experts say can also help waterways capture more planet-warming carbon dioxide. But today, just one percent of the native oyster population found in the bay before the 1880s remains, due to pollution, disease and overharvesting -- leaving a mammoth task for environmentalists. Volunteers like Price are crucial to these efforts led by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). For around nine months, they keep infant oysters in cages at their docks to give them the best chance of reaching adulthood. Then they put them to work at helping preserve the planet. "We humans destroy everything, right? So this is like, let's fix our problems: how do we try and correct this?" Price, a housing consultant, told AFP. At her Maryland home, where ospreys flew overhead and tiny fish swam below, she pulled up a mesh cage marked "Not for sale or human consumption" suspended by rope in the water. Inside on large, old oyster shells -- many recycled from restaurants -- were half a dozen smaller live oysters each about the size of a knuckle. When Price got them last summer, they were no bigger than pinpricks that the CBF had received as oyster larvae from a specialist hatchery before bonding them to shells in setting tanks. Price's role has involved scrubbing her eight cages and rinsing them with fresh water every two weeks to remove organisms that can restrict oxygen and hinder feeding. When AFP visited in late May, she was giving them a final clean before joining other volunteers returning the oysters to the CBF to be planted on sanctuary reefs in the bay, where fishing of the mollusks is banned. - 'We can get there' - It's part of an ambitious goal that the nonprofit and its partners set in 2018 to add 10 billion new oysters to the bay -- America's largest estuary -- by the end of 2025. Around 6.7 billion have been planted so far, CBF oyster expert Kellie Fiala said at the group's headquarters, adding that the population is "trending in a positive direction." "Thinking about how many oysters used to be in the bay, we still have a ways to go," she said, but insisted that "working together, we can get there." A key challenge is a lack of substrate in the bay -- the hard riverbed material that oysters need to grow on -- because for many years, shells were removed to be used in building driveways and gardens. "Folks then just didn't understand the importance of putting that shell back so it can be a home for new oysters," Fiala said. To address this, the organization is encouraging volunteers to make "reef balls" -- igloo-style concrete blocks that can serve as artificial underwater habitats. This initiative, like oyster gardening, encourages community participation ranging from schoolchildren to retirees. Some of those volunteers, including Price, arrived at the CBF's office next to the bay to drop off their buckets of homegrown oysters ready for planting. Each got a rough tally of how many they had brought based on the average number of babies on a handful of shells. For Price, it was what she celebrated as a "very good" total of around 7,500. Her oysters were loaded with others onto a small, single-engine boat that the captain, 61-year-old Dan Johannes, steered towards a sanctuary reef in a tidal tributary of the bay. There, two interns began dumping the 20 buckets overboard, with the oysters splashing into the water. The planting process took no longer than a minute -- 75,000 oysters, raised for almost a year -- returning to the bay. bjt/sms/nl
E&E News
03-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Chesapeake Bay blue crab populations nosedive
The Chesapeake Bay blue crab could be experiencing a population crash on par with the early 2000s, when experts feared the prized mid-Atlantic species was at risk of hitting unrecoverable levels. New data from winter crab surveys completed by the states of Maryland and Virginia showed drops in both adult male and female crabs between 2024 and 2025, as well as a worrisome decline in juvenile crabs that are vulnerable to predators and other environmental stressors. 'The red flags are flying for blue crabs,' said Allison Colden, Maryland executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, in a statement. 'With more than five years of below average crab numbers, it is clear that changing conditions in the Bay are undermining the current management of this important species.' Advertisement But Chesapeake Bay crab harvesters, called 'watermen,' say they are not seeing evidence of a dangerously depleted blue crab stock and will lobby Maryland and Virginia to maintain current catch limits.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Biologists discover stunning turnaround in one of US' most critical oyster populations: 'We've seen a rebound'
After decades of population decline, Chesapeake Bay oysters are thriving again, the Washington Post reported. A vibrant oyster population is essential to water cleanliness and aquatic biodiversity. As one of nature's best natural filtration systems that remove sediments and pollutants, they filter as much as two gallons of water hourly. Their healthy reefs are also habitats for other species like striped blennies, American eels, skilletfish, and blue crabs, per Ocean Find Your Blue. However, overharvesting, disease, and environmental factors like drought and habitat decline have affected these aquatic species for decades. The rebound is a result of better ecological conditions and conservation work from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Maryland for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Based on their research, conditions have allowed for more successful reproduction or "epic, generational spat sets," as Lynn Waller Fegley, Maryland Department of Natural Resources' director of fishing and boating services, told the Washington Post. Those spats, which refer to larvae that attach to hard surfaces as they develop into mature oysters, have not only increased in number but also in distribution through the bay. Maryland isn't the only DMV state to see thriving oysters again since Virginia's conservation effort allowed it to harvest one of the highest bushel amounts since the late 1980s — 700,000 of them. Reliable oyster harvesting affects local livelihoods, which is why the past unstable population caused some to leave the business due to fluctuations that made profits impossible. A 2020 report from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation stated that Maryland received about $9 million annually from oyster operations. In Virginia, one of the nation's top oyster producers, the state's economy gets $1.1 billion from seafood, and oysters are a major part of that, according to Virginia Tech. "In the last five years, we've seen a rebound," Allison Colden, executive director of Maryland for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, told the Washington Post. Other areas are also thriving with aquatic conservation — Cabo Pulmo in Mexico is seeing rebounding coral reefs, and an emergency hand-feeding program to help Florida manatees has been suspended as their food source, seagrass, has revived. Do you think America is in a housing crisis? Definitely Not sure No way Only in some cities Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Clean water that supports aquatic life and industry isn't something to take for granted. If these revivals remain steady, it marks progress toward a cleaner and safer planet for all. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Volunteers needed for Clean the Bay Day in Suffolk
Keep Suffolk Beautiful will participate in the 36th annual Clean the Bay Day, organized by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and is calling on volunteers to help clean the city's waterways and shorelines. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to noon June 7 at two locations: Constant's Wharf Park and Marina, 100 E. Constance Road Sleepy Hole Park, 4616 Sleepy Hole Road Participants will be provided with supplies including grabbers, safety vests, gloves and trash bags. Pre-registration is not required. Volunteers can check in on-site upon arrival. For more information, visit
