ESTUARIES

Estuaries are short-lived ephemeral features of the earth's crust. The life of the Chesapeake Bay estuary has been temporarily extended due to rising sea level in this locality, but the ultimate fate of the Bay is the same as every other estuary. The demise of the Chesapeake Bay has been accelerated by the population density around it's shore. In 1972 the population was about 12 million; today there are approximately 16 million people living in the Bay area. The impervious surfaces have increased at roughly 5 times the population, leading to greater erosion, flashiness and more intense runoff. With the increase in population in the Bay area came, not only sediment and runoff, but pollutants from garbage, overstressed sewage treatment plants, medical waste, agricultural runoff, and runoff from lawns and golf courses. Sediments and their accompanying pollutants stress the living resources of the Bay by reducing light penetration and smothering bottom-dwelling organisms, in addition to being toxic to many of the life forms. Some years ago, the Bay waters were filtered by oysters, but in recent years the oyster population has been decimated by overfishing and consequently the fine particles can stay suspended in the water column for long periods of time and reduce light penetration to rooted aquatic plants. This has a deleterious effect on plant life and on the Bay in general.