Efforts to restore once-abundant oysters in the estuary will focus on the struggling native oyster, not a long-debated Asian variety.

Bay health gets another bad rating As growth outpaces cleanup, Chesapeake is put at 38 percent The health of the ailing Chesapeake Bay has shown no improvement in the past year as pollution caused by population growth and development overwhelms cleanup efforts, according to a report released yesterday. The annual study by the Chesapeake Bay Program—the federal-state partnership working on bay restoration—said the nation’s largest estuary remains “severely degraded” because of contaminants such as nitrogen and phosphorous.

Success is seen in the effort to protect the crab population, but will consumers buy the catch? Virginia watermen begin their Chesapeake Bay blue crab harvest today with the prospect of a bountiful catch at a time when the sweet delicacy may be too pricey for cost-conscious consumers.

An industry group is seeking the green light from Virginia to grow 1.1 million Asian oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Eastern Shore.

Officials representing Virginia, Maryland, and the Army Corps of Engineers soon will vote on a proposal to introduce Asian oysters into the Chesapeake. We (1) love oysters, (2) indulge in a dozen or so on the half-shell every weekend, and (3) recommend a nay. In a guest column in the Feb. 1 Commentary section, Michael Lipford of The Nature Conservancy and Ann Jennings of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation argued against the foreign oysters and in favor of oysters native to regional waters. They cited the flourishing aquaculture that has replenished oyster beds in the Bay and its tributaries. Oyster numbers have increased in the Lynnhaven River, for instance; the Rappahannock produces healthy stocks. Lipford and Jennings expressed concern that the Asian oysters could overwhelm the natives, thereby altering one of the Chesapeake’s icons.

The long-lost crab pot came up from the bottom laden with mud and slime and sea life. Dennis Dalheim shook it out and swung it up on deck. It was rusted and falling apart, but the “ghost pot” was the catch of the day. “This is what I do now,“ said Dalheim, a Poquoson crabber who is spending this winter rounding up derelict crab pots from the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The state of Virginia pays Dalheim and 57 other crabbers $300 per day plus fuel costs to collect ghost pots, which probably number in the thousands.

How can we have a professional, working VMRC without members of the maritime profession? We can’t. How do real estate agents and insurance salesmen manage a fishery? Not very well. The VMRC needs a major overhaul. For far too long, the board has had a stranglehold on the watermen. Due to the mismanagement of this agency, the needs of our Chesapeake Bay and the men who work its waters have been ignored and neglected. The results are the drastic decline of the Bay’s oysters, fish, and crabs.

About 600,000 pounds of rockfish with a retail value of $3 million to $7 million was handled by a ring that trafficked fish from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River, law enforcement officials said. Nine people have been charged after a four-year undercover probe that authorities called the largest investigation of illegal commercial fishing in the area.

A few weeks ago, the Chesapeake Bay’s oysters made big news in Maryland when state biologists revealed the number of oysters dying from disease appears to have dropped for the fifth year in a row. Virginia also has good news to share about its native oysters. Over the past few years, native oyster efforts in the commonwealth have produced vibrant oyster beds and bigger aquaculture harvests. Since 2005, native oyster aquaculture plantings have nearly tripled, and harvests have increased five-fold.

The light of a cold dawn revealed an endangered species on the James River—waterman Rodgers Green of Gloucester. Green catches oysters the old-fashioned way, with 16-foot tongs that resemble two rakes attached like scissors.

The story of the Doughnutfish is one of high drama on the moderately choppy Chesapeake Bay. It’s the sometimes tall tale of one man’s unquenchable thirst for striped bass by the bucketload and another’s insatiable desire for processed sugar perfection. It has all the ingredients of a great fishing yarn: a salty-dog boat captain, hard-bitten fishermen and a charismatic outdoors writer (yes, that is redundant).

Two people died and four were injured yesterday after their 18-foot fishing boat capsized in the chilly waters of the Chesapeake Bay off Lynnhaven Inlet in Virginia Beach. Authorities confirmed that the men were from Arizona. A family member of two of the people said the group was made up of avid fishermen who had set out onto the bay to catch striped bass. The identities of the victims were being withheld until all the families could be notified.

The federal government and states bordering the Chesapeake Bay announced to considerable fanfare in 1983 that they would clean up the bay. They announced a new agreement in 1987. And another in 2000. But the bay remains polluted. Saying enough is enough, a coalition led by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group, filed suit yesterday to force the federal Environmental Protection Agency to clean the bay.

Pollution and overfishing have devastated the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab harvest, a new report from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has concluded. Since 1990, the bay’s blue crab population plunged by two-thirds the Annapolis-based organization said.

On late-autumn days, this tiny Chesapeake Bay island normally buzzes with workboat engines and the shouts of Tangier watermen in their Elizabethan dialect. No more. The docks and crab shanties on stilts lining the harbor are empty.
SLIDESHOW: Fishing regulations impact residents of Tangier Island