Marylanders can expect to see fewer crab cakes and oysters on their plates and more shrimp as water temperatures and pollution levels rise, according to a recent Smithsonian article citing data reported from Earth Gauge, a National Environmental Education Foundation program.
Last winter caused a significant loss in crab population, leading to rising market prices for the crustacean, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. And researchers have observed an even more significant population decline over the past several decades due to pollution, according to the foundation.
Without an effort to clean the bay, bottom feeders will die off, leaving shrimp and striped bass in the water and state residents without their iconic crab cakes, said Donald Boesch, this university’s Center for Environmental Science president.
Therefore, Boesch said, state residents have an obligation to ‘Save the Bay’ — the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s motto — and its 500 million pounds of annually harvested seafood.
“We live in the richest, most educated country in the world; specifically, one of the most educated states in the country, and we are at one of the best universities in the state,” Boesch said. “Why shouldn’t we be the ones leading everyone?”
A May 2014 survey of the blue crab population indicated an increase in juvenile crabs but a significant decline of roughly 90 million fertile-age crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
“We really don’t have that much time left to make a difference to the damage that we’ve already done to the bay,” said Maya Spaur, Student Government Association sustainability committee member.
This year’s ninth annual Crab Feast in Cole Field House is not attracting as many students as previous years — a trend that may be indicative of major changes happening in the Chesapeake Bay.
“We have sold around 500 tickets for the Crab Feast, but ticket sales are down from past years because of the higher cost of crabs and higher cost of tickets,” said Bryan Farrell, SGA tradition commission chairman.
About 300 million pounds of nitrogen, a primary nutrient contaminant, pollutes the Bay each year, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. That is six times more nitrogen than the bay received at its healthiest level in the 1600s.
The excess organic matter comes from agriculture, sewage and industrial plants, vehicles and septic lines. With more than 64,000 square miles of land in the Chesapeake watershed, all of that nitrogen and phosphorus is washed into the bay with stormwater and causes “dead zones,” Boesch said.
The nitrogen and phosphorus feed algal blooms, which then block sunlight to the bottom of the bay and cause oxygen-depleted dead zones that can kill fish and shellfish, according to the foundation.
So what is the university doing to curb the stormwater that is washing contaminants into the bay?
“We are getting to the point where we are setting the standards for the rest of Maryland,” said Michael Carmichael, university stormwater management coordinator. “We are having to retrofit old technology because we are moving forward so quickly.”
Over the 1,250 acres of campus, there are several gardens that capture stormwater for immediate and later use. The Peace and Friendship Garden behind Lot 1 captures rainwater, stores it and uses it for drip irrigation. Solar panels power the drip irrigation pumps, said Carmichael, a university alumnus.
On the outskirts of campus there is also a small fortune of bioretention water facilities that Carmichael micromanages. Each facility uses plants and gravel to filter the water into the ground or a municipal water facility, he said.
Although this water eventually empties into the bay, it is cleaner than it would have been without the university’s water management, Carmichael said.
As the university moves to build LEED-certified buildings and better control what it is emptied into the watershed around us, students will just have to bear the higher costs of crabs.
“As an integral part of our economy, traditions and local identity, the loss of crabs will be a loss to the community,” Farrell said.
