W2 AM Chesapeake Bay Restoration (Part 1)
Wednesday, 16 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 11:40 AM in Ballroom 2

(LUD-1122-335711) Historical and Current Impacts and Issues Affecting Chesapeake Bay Fisheries.

Ludwig, D¹, Iannuzzi, T¹, ¹ BBL Sciences, Annapolis, MD, USA

ABSTRACT- For Native Americans in pre-Columbian times and scattered early European settlements, the Chesapeake Estuary provided abundant resources of fish and shellfish. Soon after, agriculture, industry, development, and harvest began the cycles of impact that continue today. Exploitation depleted some species, such as shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon, during the colonial period. Since then, populations of commercial and recreational fish and shellfish, including American shad and river herrings, Atlantic croaker, striped bass, blue crab, soft clam, and American oyster have drastically declined and, in some cases (for example, striped bass) recovered. In this presentation, we summarize historical changes in Chesapeake Bay fish and shellfish populations and describe the ecosystem alterations, harvest technologies, and management methods that provide much of the context for those changes. We provide a fresh perspective regarding the effects of invasive species, disease organisms, commercial and recreational harvest, landscape modifications, point-and non-point source pollution, and habitat degradation on fish and shellfish resources. We develop and present a general model illustrating the linked nature of human and aquatic ecosystems in the Chesapeake, incorporating both the directed management of fish and shellfish resources and the undirected constraints imposed on the ecology of the Bay by ongoing anthropogenic modification of the biosphere.

Key words: Chesapeake Bay, Fisheries, Historical Ecology, Impact Assessment