FISHERIES

The fish and shellfish of the Chesapeake are the most tangible symbol of the Bay, but people have taken them for granted. Historically, we've done a poor job as stewards of these valuable resources. As a result, many of the Chesapeake Bay's fisheries have been reduced in diversity and productivity. Oysters are at dangerously low levels, crabs stocks are at all-time lows, and there are even concerns over the future health of rockfish (striped bass), which have made a comeback in recent years. Water pollution affects all of the Bay's fisheries, undermining efforts by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) to rebuild the stocks.

In colonial times, sturgeon were reported in huge numbers, but they were soon overfished; sturgeon are rarely even heard of in the Bay anymore. American shad supported the most valuable fishery in the Bay for more than 200 years, until decades of heavy fishing and habitat destruction diminished this resource to a shadow of its past abundance. After the Civil War, the oyster boom began, and oysters took over as the most valuable fishery in the Bay. But unrestricted harvesting destroyed the once-abundant reefs, and siltation and disease further reduced oyster numbers to less than one percent of historic levels.

The rockfish fishery followed the same pattern, and was devastated by overfishing in the 1970s. The one bright spot is that rockfish have been brought back to their former abundance by intensive conservation, though there are concerns they may not have enough food (menhaden). The blue crab fishery, currently the most valuable, has expanded five fold in the last fifty years and may be destined to follow the same boom-and-bust pattern.

CBF seeks to apply the lessons learned from this history to restore and maintain the Bay's valuable fisheries. To do this, CBF attempts to represent the interests of the resource itself in the fisheries management process. CBF takes pride in "speaking for the fish" at legislative hearings, in regulatory forums, and directly to fishermen.

Fisheries management is comprised of two basic functions: conservation, determining how many fish, crabs, and oysters can be caught without harming the resource, and allocation, determining who gets to catch these resources.

Historically, conservation has been compromised to satisfy allocation pressures, with the result being depleted fisheries. CBF believes these two functions must be separate, and to advance this fundamental concept, we focus on conservation issues but stay out of allocation. For conservation to be successful, we believe it must be based on science with input from fishermen. CBF promotes the use of the best available biological information as the basis for conservation decisions, but when information is incomplete, we advocate "erring on the side of the resource."