Blackwater at Dawn
National Geographic
Photograph by Peter Essick
Conservationists know what's wrong with the bay and how to fix it. They also know why it won't happen soon. The Chesapeake is sending out a distress call; oysters nearly gone, crabs near historic lows, waterman towns dying out, buildings and roads fracturing the countryside.
Population in the estuary's watershed, which includes parts of six states and the District of Columbia, has doubled in a generation, from 8 million to 16 million, compromising solitude as well as water quality. No one had illusions that the work of the Chesapeake Bay Program, a massive federal-state restoration effort, begun in 1983 and unmatched anywhere in the world, would be quick or easy. But no one anticipated that 22 years later it would still be struggling. National Geographic features the Bay's struggle.
Population in the estuary's watershed, which includes parts of six states and the District of Columbia, has doubled in a generation, from 8 million to 16 million, compromising solitude as well as water quality. No one had illusions that the work of the Chesapeake Bay Program, a massive federal-state restoration effort, begun in 1983 and unmatched anywhere in the world, would be quick or easy. But no one anticipated that 22 years later it would still be struggling. National Geographic features the Bay's struggle.
Interactive Map of the Chesapeake.
Swimming At Their Own Risk In East Baltimore
National Geographic
Photograph by Peter Essick
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