Scientists see slight improvement to Chesapeake Bay's health

A report card on the health of the Chesapeake Bay released recently looks beyond the traditional indicators of nitrogen, phosphorus and water, and reviews what’s going on with the people in the bay’s massive watershed. On ecological indicators the new report card by UMCES, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, finds the bay is making progress, though the watersheds of some of the rivers that feed the Bay are not as healthy. Maryland Secretary of Natural Resources Josh Kurtz joins us to discuss the invasive and indigenous creatures in the bay. After years of falling numbers, are crab populations moving in the right direction? And what threat do invasive species, like the Blue Catfish, pose? Department of Natural Resources' winter dredge survey is a bay-wide effort to estimate the number of blue crabs living in the Chesapeake Bay. The survey estimates of the number of crabs over-wintering in the bay and the number of young crabs entering the population each year, among other data sets used to manage the crab's population. But first, Bill Dennison, Vice President for Science Application at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, joins the show to discuss some of the new findings. Dennison is a professor of marine science and is set to become UMCES interim president in September. UMCES report includes a new component this year—environmental justice—where it finds marked disparities. Suburbs tend to show lower impacts of environmental stress than cities and rural areas.Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472