Wednesday, April 24, 2013
The currently nameless heron appears on Maryland license plates.
Officials at the Chesapeake Bay Trust are looking for input to help name its blue heron mascot. The heron, which also currently adorns "Treasure the Chesapeake" Maryland license plates, is nameless at the moment. But through April 26, the organization is asking Marylanders to vote on its website for one of three finalists: Hattie the Heron, Seemore D. Bay and Wade. More than 550 names were submitted to the organization's contest, according to a press release. "Submissions ranged from names that rhymed with heron, to ones that represented famous Marylanders, to others that held a personal story or connection the submitter had with the bay," Molly Alton Mullins, director of communications at the trust, said in the release. "It was incredibly…
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
High-volume water users could pay upwards of $60 a year.
- GOVERNMENT
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
By Ellen Stodola, Capital News Service A number of legislators are concerned that Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to raise the flush tax from $2.50 to $5 a month to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay could be too much for constituents to handle, especially in a bad economy. The flush tax, which raises funds for updates of wastewater treatment plants, as well as septic systems and stormwater management, costs each household a total of $30 a year. But O'Malley's proposal for the Bay Restoration Fund ties the fee to consumption, with $5 being the average that most people will pay per month. Those who use less water could pay less, but high-volume users could pay upwards of $60 a year. Though many legislators agree that the Chesapeake Bay is a …
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Study shows that the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay has declined 92 percent since 1980.
- NEWS
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Thursday, December 8, 2011
By Greg Masters Capital News Service ANNAPOLIS — The Chesapeake Bay's oyster population has plummeted since the late 1960s, when Willy Dean, a Maryland waterman since the age of 17, would go hand tonging with his father and "load the boat with oysters." "The catch is way, way down from what it was back then," Dean said. The population is so low that several scientists recommended a complete halt on oyster harvesting in a study published in August by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. But a moratorium has not gained traction among watermen and state officials, who see the industry as an important tradition and a small but significant part of the state's economy. "People would have to get other jobs, leave the …
Bob
4:56 pm on Friday, December 9, 2011
wow. Just another story to show how greed and gross negligence by the gov't is ruining our fisheries. First it was gross overfishing by omega protein, now watermen wiping out oysters. what's next? more ›