Just Looking for a Pic-a-nic Basket

Southern Maryland News, Bear sighted in St. Mary's County

Late last week reports began popping up on social media of black bear sightings in St. Mary’s County. The county’s emergency services department issued a warning to residents with some helpful tips now that there seems to be at least one black bear that wandered into the county.

Those tips include never feed a bear, secure garbage outside of homes, don’t leave pet food outside, remove bird feeders while bears are active, and clean and store grills. “While black bears are generally not aggressive, they can pose a threat if they feel cornered, startled or have easy access to food around human habitats,” according to the department.

So far, sightings have been reported in Piney Point, Mechanicsville and Dameron and Historic St. Mary’s City — in other words, throughout St. Mary’s County.

Officials have not given any word on how the black bear may have arrived in St. Mary’s, although some have speculated it swam across the Potomac River from Virginia, where the bears are prevalent, especially in the mountains.

For now, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is monitoring the situation. “To my knowledge, I don’t believe they’ve caught the bear or seen the bear too recently, but it is exciting,” Commissioner Eric Colvin (R) said at Tuesday’s county commissioners’ meeting. “Recommendation is if you see the bear, just let it be, let it go on its way.”

If it swam the Potomac to get to St. Mary's County, it can swim the Patuxent to get to Calvert. It's a good thing Black Bears hardly ever kill anybody. I wonder if it's hanging out with the St. Mary's Alligator. 

Ospreys Put On Short Leash

 Breaking Defense, V-22 Osprey operating with ‘limited envelope,’ required to stay near airfields

While the Defense Department’s various V-22 fleets may all have returned to some form of service following a safety-related grounding, they will continue to operate under a “limited envelope” for the foreseeable future, top acquisition officials said today.

Nickolas Guertin, the Navy’s senior acquisition official, told Senate appropriators that his service has established a “crawl-walk-run” approach to slowly bring the V-22 fleet up to full speed, but did not give a timeline for when that might be.

The US grounded its V-22 fleets on Dec. 6, following a Nov. 29 mishap during which eight airmen were killed when their Osprey crashed off the coast of Japan. Flight operations formally resumed March 6, although clearly not at full-strength.

“We rigorously investigated” the cause of the crash, Guertin said today. “We looked at what — we actually brought that craft back up out of the water, we investigated what was going on, did a detailed analysis. And we better understand what happened in that particular failure mode.”

The V-22 fleets are “now in a limited envelope. But we’re characterizing and collecting data so that we can better understand where we are, and be able to safely get back to the full flight envelope for that aircraft.”

While Guertin did not explain what that “limited envelope” means, the recently released draft National Defense Authorization Act contains language that sheds some light on the issue, as first reported by Aviation Week.

“The committee understands that current CMV-22 operations are limited to flights and missions that stay within 30 minutes of a suitable divert airfield,” the language from the subcommittee on seapower and projection forces reads.
 
According to Aviation Week, that 30 minute restriction currently applies to all V-22 variants, not just the CVM-22 — although, as the HASC notes, that variant is supposed to do carrier operations, and effectively cannot do that mission as long as the restrictions are in place.

We occasionally see Ospreys fly over here. We are certainly within 30 minutes flying distance of Patuxent River Naval Air Station and Andrews Airforce Base, either of which could be home to V-22s. 

The Ospreys have a long history of mechanical and operator failures. A engineer friend of mine, who worked on them during their early years at Pax once told me he wouldn't get one knowing what he knows. When I asked him recently, though, he said he would now.

Legislator Proposes Lipstick on Frankenfish

 WUSA9, Snakehead no more? New name proposed for invasive fish

What's in a name? Nothing good for the snakehead fish.

But a Maryland state senator recently amended a bill to rename the Northern Snakehead, an invasive species, in hopes of convincing more people to eat them. “Chesapeake Channa” is the latest name some legislators hope will replace the snakehead’s name.

"This bill seeks to encourage consumption of the snakehead and better manage its population by giving the snakehead a new name,” said Southern Maryland Senator Jack Bailey in a hearing supporting his bill.

Bailey’s original proposal called for calling snakeheads “Patuxent Fish."

Which is stupid because they are nowhere near confined to the Patuxent.

That sparked a petition drive in opposition that attracted signatures from people objecting to linking the name of one of Maryland’s most historic and environmentally sensitive rivers to an invasive species from China.

“There's lots of cultural significance and so forth,” said Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman. “To stigmatize it with an invasive outsider - a fish that doesn't really belong here - that's a little harsh.”

Tutman said “Chesapeake Channa” is a better choice because it relates to the species scientific name Channa Argus and might actually look interesting on a menu.

“I like that! Pass the Channa honey, please pass the Channa," Tutman mused, testing out the proposed name.

Snakeheads continue to expand their range in the Chesapeake region after originally appearing in a Crofton, Maryland pond in 2002.

I'm familiar with several species of snakeheads from my teenage years working in a tropical fish store in L.A. At least one other species has become naturalized in Florida. Let's just keep the name. It's well accepted, and doesn't seem to inhibit anyone from catching and eating them. I can't think of another common sport fish referred to by it's Latin name. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Monday: Coffee, please ready and waiting at The Other McCain.

Torrential Rains Cause Sewage, Stormwater Spill

Little Patuxent River

 As you may, or may not, know, the East Coast was hit with major winter storms over the last week, most notably Wednesday, when we had 2 inches of rain, and place up the road had 4 or more. Flood warning were widespread due to overloaded streams, and storm tides up to 5 feet above normal flooded coastal areas. As is often the case, local infrastructure was not adequate to take care of the problems. WUSA 9, 138,000 gallons of sewage overflow leads to precautionary health alert in Howard Co.

A precautionary public health alert has been issued following a sanitary sewer overflow in Savage.

According to the Howard County Health Department, the sanitary sewer overflow happened at 8900 Greenwood Place. The Department of Public Works was first notified of a potential overflow on Tuesday around 10 p.m. 

Personnel noticed the overflow and shut off the valves necessary to stop it. By 10:15 p.m., the overflow had been halted.

Part of the approximately 138,888 gallons of sewage overflow traveled overland and into the Little Patuxent River. Most of the overflow went down a storm drain, which also discharged into the river.

At the time of the overflow, the river had overtopped its banks and was flooding. The health department is alerting the public as a precaution but signs will not be posted as the area is not accessible to the public.

Most of the time, the Little Patuxent River is a small stream, barely trickle in summer, but with the heavy rains, I'm sure it had plenty of water to dilute it with. 

At the DCist, During Storm, New Tunnel Kept 233 Million Gallons Of Sewage Out Of Anacostia River

Tuesday was a wet one, with 2.24 inches of rain falling in the District — the highest single-day rainfall total in the past year. It was also the biggest test of a giant new sewer tunnel running beneath the city, meant to prevent sewage overflows into the Anacostia River and reduce neighborhood flooding.

The Northeast Boundary Tunnel, or NEBT, went online in September, promising to reduce sewage overflows in the Anacostia River by 98%.

During Tuesday’s storm, the tunnel captured 267 million gallons of stormwater and sewage, preventing it from spilling into the river.

“Before this tunnel was built, all of that flow would have overflowed into the Anacostia River,” says John Lisle, a DC Water spokesperson.

The tunnel did fill to capacity at about 8pm on Tuesday. About 112 million gallons were discharged into the Anacostia once the tunnel was full.

Water and sewage captured by the tunnel is later treated at DC Water’s facilities, and then discharged into the Potomac River, sans harmful bacteria and other pollutants. As of Wednesday afternoon, the tunnel was still being pumped out.

The new tunnel is about 5 miles long and is part of a new 13-mile system that has a total capacity of 190 million gallons. Before the project, the District’s old sewers would dump overflow into the Anacostia 84 times a year. Now it’s expected to happen just twice a year.

While the NEBT was designed to help clean up the river, as required by under a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it also helps drain stormwater from low-lying neighborhoods that have a history of flooding including Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park. The tunnel reduces flood risk in the area along Rhode Island Ave., NE, that flooded District Dogs in August, killing 10 pets.

112 million gallons is still a lot of water. 

Wade-In Finds Patuxent Worse

Bernie Fowler leads a wade-in at SERC in 2009

The Bay Net, Fresh Faces And Murkier Water At This Year’s Patuxent River Wade-In

Sunday, June 11, 2023, marked the second “Bernie Fowler Wade-In” held since the event’s founder, former state Sen. Bernie Fowler’s death in December 2021.

Sunday’s event marked the 36th Annual wade-in where community participants are invited to walk into the Patuxent River and measure the “Sneaker Index.” The index was developed by Sen. Fowler to measure how many inches he could wade into the water and still see his white sneakers.

The torch has now been passed to his grandson, Cody Fowler, to carry on the tradition. Fowler wore his grandfather’s wade-in uniform: denim overalls, a straw hat, and the required white sneakers.

This year, the index measured 30 inches of visibility. This was the lowest reading the wade-in has recorded since 2014. Last year, the reading was recorded as 39 inches. When Sen. Fowler started the wade-in, the inaugural reading was 10 inches.

As the speakers prior to the traditional wade-in emphasized, the event is less about the “Sneaker Index” itself and more about the attention the yearly ritual brings to the health of the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed as a whole.

The wade-ins are great events for publicity, but of little significance otherwise. The water clarity day to day, hour to hour and minute to minute is very dependent of the weather. Tides sweep water across the shore, sometimes picking up particles from the surf in one area and moving it to another, or winds pick up and suspend more particles.

Patuxent River Gets an Unusual Visitor

Unique Striped Mullet Found By Workers In Chesapeake Watershed

Maryland Department of Natural Resources workers found unique fish in the Chesapeake watershed.

A DNR team was electrofishing for blue catfish in Hunting Creek, a tributary of the Patuxent River near Benedict Bridge in Anne Arundel County when they came across a striped mullet.

Although its a coastal fish, it’s not commonly found in the Chesapeake watershed. It’s normally found down South.

I remember mullet runs from my year and a half sojourn to Florida, before I came to Maryland. I learned to cast net for them (though, not very well), use them for live bait for blues, mackerel and jacks, as well as fillet them, smoke them and eat them. Here, let Darcizzle show you:



It would be such a shame if global warming brought this delightful fishery our way.

Wombat-socho has Rule 5 Sunday: Mapy Cortes up at The Other McCain.

Local Knuckleheads in the News

From Stacy McCain, ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ Sparks Outrage in St. Mary’s County, Maryland

A small town in southern Maryland is in the middle of a controversy after the local library hosted a “Drag Queen Story Hour” featuring a D.C.-area man who apparently operates a gay escort business.

Todd Musick (left) as drag queen ‘Stormy Vain’ (right)

Todd Musick, who uses the stage name “Stormy Vain” for his drag performances, owns “Eroticasy,” based in Temple Hills, Maryland, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. According to a shocking report by the parents-rights group Mass Resistance, Musick’s business offers a variety of services, including gay male escorts whose online profiles describe their sexual specialties in graphic detail. Parents in largely rural St. Mary’s County this week demanded that the county commission “do something” after learning that Musick performed, along with Nicholas Hebb (“Angelica Lize”) during a “Drag Queen Story Hour” at the public library in Lexington Park (population 11,626):

On June 23, a “Drag Queen Story Hour” took place at the nearby Lexington Park Public Library, where homosexual men dressed as garish women read LGBT-affirming story books to young children ages 3-8. They also conducted a “drag queen makeup tutorial” for “tweens and teens” – children 9-19 years old. Their stated goal: “To capture their imagination and give kids positive and unabashedly queer, role models.”
The event at the public library was organized by the Southern Maryland Area Secular Humanists, a radical anti-family atheist group that often targets young people with sexuality events, and PFLAG — a national LGBT group targeting youth. The public is repeatedly told that Drag Queens are “role models” for children and have important lessons to teach young people.

Identifying St. Mary's County as "predominantly rural" is true, but misses the point that it is home to one of the country's largest naval bases, Patuxent River Naval Air Station, which dominates the population and businesses of the Lexington Park area, bringing with a larger town sort of atmosphere. Including . . .

Library officials and the event organizers at first refused to identify the “Drag Queen Story Hour” performers, but after a local newspaper named them, Georgia Kijesky, a local mother of four, contacted Mass Resistance researcher Tracy Shannon, who described her discovery:

Stormy Vain runs a sex-oriented business under the banner of Stormy’s Angels of Entertainment and Eroticasy. His more questionable business offerings include: nude maid services, nude maintenance service, nude handymen, nude personal trainers, nude hair styling, strippers for parties and 1-on-1 sessions, male escorts/companions, sex toys, X-rated candies, and “much more” . . .
Clearly, Stormy Vain’s Twitter feed shows that this drag queen business goes beyond promoting strippers, nude handymen, nude maids, and homosexual escorts. Some of his posts imply these people can be paid for sex. Sure enough, if you click into the profiles of the naked homosexual men that he hires out for various services, they are prostitutes. Stormy Vain is essentially a drag madame.

Speaking to a Tuesday meeting of the St. Mary’s County County Commission, Kijesky said: “We elected you . . . to protect our children. Please do something about this immediately. Enough is enough.” Although Maryland is a liberal state, St. Mary’s County is staunchly conservative, giving 58% of its vote to Donald Trump in 2016 and voting by more than a 3-to-1 margin for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in 2018.

I do know of one couple who took their kids down to this event. He's the evangelical atheist on Facebook who's even more annoying than the born-agains.

Hey, those kids aren't going to just recruit themselves!

Chesapeake Bay Dirtier Than Last Year

according to Bernie Fowler's white sneaker index: Bernie Fowler measures a sneaker index of 36 inches at annual wade-in

At the 31st annual Patuxent River Wade-In on Sunday, former Maryland State Senator Bernie Fowler saw his sneakers through 36 inches of water. This year’s “sneaker index”—the deepest point at which Fowler can still see his shoes as he wades into the water—measured lower than last year’s 41.5 inches.

Since 1988, Fowler has held the wade-in on the second Sunday in June, which now marks the end of Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week. Clad in his signature white sneakers and cowboy hat, he hosts the event to bring attention to the polluted waters of the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay. Held for decades near Fowler’s childhood home on Broomes Island, the event moved to Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in 2010.

In the 1950s, Fowler could wade into the Patuxent up to his chest and still see the river’s bottom teeming with fish, shellfish and underwater grasses. Nutrient and sediment pollution, however, have led to declines in water clarity and fueled algae blooms that block sunlight from reaching the river bottom. The 1960s sneaker index of 57 inches now serves as the benchmark for a restored Patuxent River.

I was over on the Patuxent near Jefferson Patterson Park on Trevor's boat's shakedown cruise, and the water looked pretty brown and murky to me. There is probably a bloom of "mahogany tide" dinoflagellates getting going as a result of all our recent rains.

A few problems with Bernie's sneaker index. Mostly, it only measure clarity at one point in the Bay, on one day of the year. And as we have seen, water clarity can vary from minute to minute as waves and currents move the water around, and wash the algae blooms by.  Bernie's eye, like mine, aren't getting any better either.

June 12, 2018 Beach Report

It was a pretty nice day for a beach walk. Sunny, temperatures in the 70s, and not humid, not a lot of wind.

Unfortunately, even low tide was very high, so we didn't have as much beach to pick through.

However, Georgia found this stunning Cow Shark tooth.

My best was this somewhat nusual Snaggletooth lower, from the side of the mouth I think, which accounts for it's unusual slant.








After lunch, I was off to the Solomon's boat ramp, to help Trevor launch and start the boat I sold him three years ago. While there were some electrical failures, (open boats don't age well in the weather), we did succeed in getting it started and ran it up and down the Patuxent River 10 miles or so.

That's a relief!

Trump Rules Allow Washington D.C. Osprey Relocation

At the paywalled WaPo, so I'll quote extra generously. Osprey nest at a construction crane finds a new home

The osprey had picked a fairly tough spot for a home — a construction crane at a complex in the Wharf area of Southwest Washington’s waterfront.

The area is a perfect habitat for osprey, but the location of the nest worried many neighborhood residents and environmentalists. Experts suspected that the birds had chicks up there but couldn’t be sure and estimated that they would be about four weeks old.

On Thursday, the Wharf’s developer — PN Hoffman — at the site along Seventh and I streets SW — said it and local wildlife experts had successfully relocated the ospreys and three of their baby birds from the crane to Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary in southern Maryland.

While Ospreys obviously originally used and other natural structures to nest in, around here, Ospreys almost always use man made structures, navigation aids, pilings, unused boats etc. I suspect that has allowed their population to expand above pre-colonial levels when they relied mostly on dead trees, and competed for them with the much more aggressive local Bald Eagles.

According to the Fish and Wildlife site, ospreys are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. But that Web page was last updated on April 20 of last year, and wildlife experts are concerned that, as with many environmental rules and laws, the Trump administration has changed the guidelines of the century-old mandate.

Some of the birds that are currently protected under the act include the bald eagle, snowy egret and great blue heron. The act was meant to protect migratory birds that were near extinction after they had been hunted or poached for their feathers.

But now the interpretations of the law and how it will be enforced are a bit up in the air after the Trump administration put out a legal opinion on the measure in December.

Trumped!

Some experts said that how the longtime measure is being enforced and interpreted is “still a moving target.”

There has been guidance from the administration that the law would not be used as it has been in the past to hold people and companies accountable for hurting or killing animals, according to wildlife experts. Over decades, companies have covered oil pits, changed lights on communication towers from steady to blinking and undertaken other efforts in cooperation with the act.

Wind turbines, however, have been granted fairly generous "incidental take" limits, since it's quite impractical to cover their giant spinning bird blenders.

In 2009, there was another situation in the Anacostia area involving ospreys and a nest, according to Rauch. A construction company left a crane up over the winter, and ospreys came, set up a nest and laid eggs. In that case, Rauch said, even though the construction company wanted to start work and use the crane, it had to leave the nest alone and wait.

Unfortunately, he said, the eggs didn’t survive due to a bad heat wave that season.

So they wasted some private companies time and money to no good.

According to wildlife officials, Belfast Valley Inc. was the firm operating the crane. Belfast Valley and other companies obtained all the necessary and proper approvals from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to move the osprey from the nest.

The young birds, Rauch said, were about the size of a softball and pretty much slept through being moved from the nest to a softly lined basket and out to their new home.

Rauch said they “looked stress free and were getting well fed and looked great.” He said osprey are not aggressive animals and the mother osprey was not in the area when the chicks were taken.

While it is not ideal, he said, for the parents not to be around to raise the chicks, “we knew it was not going to be an option” in this case. He said there is better and safer wildlife habitat at the Jug Bay location than on the Patuxent River. He said one concern is that young chicks tend to be unstable and could easily fall out of the tall crane and onto concrete.

At Jug Bay, he said the chicks were placed in three, separate nests and were in “fine shape.” He said they were in nests where the parent osprey had lost a chick. It is typical for osprey to take over caring for other chicks, experts said.

Going to Jug Bay, he said, was the “best solution for the chicks, the adult osprey and the [company] as well.” Rauch said wildlife experts will continue to check on the osprey over the next few days to make sure they’re getting fed and cared for in their new home.

It's kind of cool that they used the chicks to fill spaces left in nests, but I wonder how effective that is. I doubt many Ospreys succeed in raising more than 2 chicks; that's a lot of fish to catch, and young birds are notorious for kicking their siblings out. I also wonder whether the adults will accept a move from Washington to Jug Bay. For a bird that migrates annually between North American and South America or the Caribbean, a move of about 15 miles isn't that big a deal. I wouldn't be shocked if they were back trying to rebuild the nest on the crane the next day.

I'm glad to see the Trump administration is allowing some rationality to creep into the policy. It's not like Ospreys are rare and endangered around here.

Dog Park and Battle Creek

Mid-January, and 69 F outside. After some chores and phone calls we decided to take Skye to the dog park  after lunch. When we got there, we found that many other people's dogs had the same idea, and there were lots of dogs to meet and butts to sniff.

Look Ma! This one has more hair than me! And drool too!

After a while at the dog park, we walked across the road to Biscoe Gray Heritage Farm to check it out. A relatively new park in our county it offers walking trails in the woods . . .

. . . and across farmed meadows. There's areas set aside for hunting and horseback riding (bring your own horse).

The trail leads own to historical Battle Creek, a tidal creek off the Patuxent River at this point. Upstream, not far away, the creek narrows to a small freshwater creek through one of the northernmost Bald Cypress swamps in the US.

There's a trail of Bluebird boxes around the meadows, and this one had a particularly fetching growth of lichen

Fishing Report 4/26/16

Sunrise today found me at "Location X" on a walk on fishing trip with Walleye Pete and 4 other anglers.

Although you can't see much effect in the pictures, there we 15+ kt winds from the WSW. The shore gave us plenty of cover on the Western Shore, but made the later ride across the bay a bit lumpy.

Joseph with a nice one jigged up out of the outflow

 And me with my first of the year top water catch, in the shallow waters around the edge.

Which is not to say I didn't catch fish in the discharge, for example this personal first Mud Shad (also called Gizzard Shad). They really smell bad. Even for a fish.

A look at the Calvert Cliffs with the sun on them.

Our next stop was Cedar Point, to the old ruined lighthouse, just offshore of Patuxent Naval Air Station. Not much happening there fishing wise, and it was rough, so. . .

Our next stop was across the bay at the Honga River Bridge (the original bridge to nowhere, of which the Alaska bridge is a mere imitator). Not much there either, and we moved along

We hit lots of sites, and only a few of them held fish, but some of them were pretty good.

A skinny water Eastern Shore striper.

The weather radio started squawking about 2 PM, and Pete decided it was time to get back across the Bay. The Osprey nesting back at the bridge (they're on every piling around) was happy to see us go.

Fishing Sunrise to Sunset

I got the call yesterday that Walleye Pete had a commercial trip and needed crew. Of course I said yes. Sunrise found us fishing at Cedar Point, off the mouth of the Patuxent River, with two other "frequent fishers", Mike and Bob.

A zoomed in view of the sunrise over the eastern shore.

After the bite petered out at Cedar Point, we crossed the bay, and fished some of the same water we've fished before. If you're Walleye Pete, you can look at stuff like this . . .

or like this, and figure out where the fish should be. Most of the time they are there.

Sunset found us back at Cedar Point, having run some 80+ miles, and with 140 fish ready for market. We were about to call it a day, when we noticed birds checking out a spot nearby. We idled over, and Pete saw fish on his side scan sonar (nice trick, that) and. . .

We found a school big fish. Bob hooked up this 30 inch fish early on. I was getting frustrated at not catching any while all around me were hooking up, when. . .

Well into darkness I hooked up on the biggest fish of the day, this 35.5 inch honker. He kept me busy a good 10 minutes, on 15 lb test line and a 30 lb leader. Another half inch and it would be too long to keep as a commercial hook and line fish.

It was an amazing day of fishing, crowned with a stupendous late bite.

Chesapeake Wreck May Be Revolutionary War Relic

A few days ago we saw how an old wooden timbered wreck was found under the Rt. 50 bridge on the Nanticoke River. It seems it may be a ship scuttled during a Revolutionary War engagement:

Nanticoke River shipwreck could be linked to Revolutionary War skirmish

Evidence of age and repairs suggests it could have been intentionally scuttled, perhaps because it was no longer seaworthy. Charring could indicate an accidental fire, or could offer a more historically significant clue — that this ship was among at least a dozen that British sympathizers looted and burned in Revolutionary War skirmishes known to have taken place in Vienna in 1780 and 1781.

It may prove true, as archaeologists continue to search archives and scrutinize the soggy timbers. But even if it can't be tied to any specific incident, the wreckage discovered in April and revealed this week could offer a rare glimpse into the state's maritime history, as the oldest Maryland-made ship found in local waters, Schablitsky said.

Archaeologists plan to develop a three-dimensional model showing it to be a precursor to the schooners or clippers for which the Chesapeake Bay is known.

I suspect it will be a long time, if ever, before we find out. They are still looking for remnants of Commodore Barney's fleet in the Patuxent. 

A New Record for Bernie's Sneaker Sightings

Not Bernie Sanders, Bernie  Fowler of Chesapeake Bay fame:

Former Maryland State Senator Bernie Fowler saw his sneakers through 44.5 inches of water at this year’s 28th annual Patuxent River Wade-In on June 14. This marks the deepest measurement of the “sneaker index”—the deepest point at which Fowler can still see his shoes as he wades into the water—since 1997.

Fowler holds the wade-in each year on the second Sunday in June to bring attention to the polluted waters of the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay. After decades on Broomes Island, the event moved to Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in 2010.

In his youth, Fowler could wade into the Patuxent up to his chest and still see fish, shellfish and underwater grasses. But nutrient and sediment pollution in the river have led to degraded water clarity and fueled algae blooms that block sunlight from reaching the river bottom. The 1960s sneaker index of 57 inches now serves as the benchmark for a restored Patuxent River. While still well below this target, this year’s measurement is close to double last year’s depth of 23 inches.

From 23 to 44 inches in one year? Wow, at this rate, the water at Broomes Island Jefferson Patterson Park will be as clear as the Cook Islands in what, a decade or so? Depending on whether the progression is linear or exponential. Of course, a lot of variability sneaks in, so it's more likely than not that next year will be worse again, much worse. I wouldn't be scheduling a Kate Upton photo shoot there any year in the near future.

Bernie Leading a Wade In on the Rhode River, 2009
He's the one with the stick

Lunch at the River's Edge

After fitness club this morning, Georgia had arranged for free vascular screening over in Charlotte Hall, Maryland. The screening wasn't much, blood pressure measurements of both arms and ankles and a sonagram of the two carotid arteries and the aorta for potential problems.  They went swiftly, and while we didn't get the results on the spot, we don't particularly expect problems.

It then being half past noonish, we had to decide what to do about lunch. On a whim, I suggested we stop in the town of Benedict, about halfway home, on the Patuxent River, where we both used to work at the Benedict Estuarine Research Lab, and try one of old restaurants there.

View from the River's Edge dining room

We stopped at River's Edge, just across from the old lab building, which has now been converted to low rent apartments. River's Edge used to be Shorter's, after Frank and Harry Shorter, the father and son watermen and restaurateurs who built it, and not coincidentally, rented the lab property. It became River's Edge many years ago when Harry sold it.

The town of Benedict is best known for being the site at which part of the British Army landed during the War of 1812, on their way to sack Washington DC.  It's still a small town, and looks much the way it did when I first came to work there in 1985, albeit a little cleaner.

I had a cup of red (vegetable) crab soup and a fried oyster sandwich, in typical Maryland style, with the oysters breaded and fried and slapped on a hamburger roll, with a draft Harpoon IPA.  It was a good stack of oysters, too, and nice and plump. I didn't inquire as to whether the oysters were local, you expect restaurants to lie about that, but there's no reason to expect they weren't. There's is a productive oyster bar about 200 yards out from the restaurant, one of the last as you move upstream in the Patuxent before it becomes too fresh. I should know, I dredged a lot of oysters off that bar during my years at Benedict.

Georgia was less adventurous, and settled for cream of crab soup and a turkey club sandwich.