Good News, Bad News on Bay Hypoxia

Chesapeake Bay showing record (low) dead zone levels, watermen disagree

The Chesapeake Bay Program says the 2023 Chesapeake Bay dead zone is the smallest on record.

The dead zone are areas of low oxygen that suffocate underwater life, shrinking the available habitat. The historical average is 0.97 and the 2023 record marks it at 0.52.

We spoke to a local waterman, Captain Robert Newberry who says this has some truth, yet they’ve seen something different on the water. 

“The recent report of the low dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay this year as a total body of water in the bay could be as good as they say they are. But what the waterman have found, specifically in the major crab areas north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as far north as above Poole’s island, is that the dead zones and bad water were prevalent all summer long. Specifically, when we have an east wind or a northeast wind, the bad water which creates the dead zones was extremely large in these areas. Many crabbers had to move their rigs north or south to get out of the bad water, and those that didn’t experience major dead loss in their pots. Even the waterman that harvest eels found many dead eels in their pots as a result of the bad water creating hypoxia. After pulling many of the crabbers in the northern bay, they all agree that there was many weeks of bad water. Maybe the DNR looked at the bay as a whole, but specifically in the northern reaches and in some of the rivers of the Chesapeake bay, bad water was prevalent throughout the summer.”

The Chesapeake Bay Program says that its results show ongoing efforts to reduce pollution.

Both can be true. We did have the best year on record for hypoxia in the deep channel of the Bay, largely due to favorable weather at critical times of the year, but in part (perhaps) from the ongoing reduction in nutrients in the Bay. However, there is still (and probably always will be) a large volume of hypoxic water at the height of summer. And when the wind blows the right direction long enough, upwelling will push it into shallow water. It used to be pretty common here. A few days of a SW wind would bring the deep water up on our beach, driving crabs and some fish with it 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: For The Fallen up and awaiting your digital pleasure at The Other McCain.