(Sun photo by Jed Kirshbaum)

Here is a transcript of my most recent "Environment in Focus" radio program, which aired this morning on WYPR 88.1 FM in Baltimore.  To listen, click here.

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Irving Chappelear is a Chesapeake Bay eelman. His father taught him a long time ago that April when masses of eels swarm past their dock in Southern Maryland. That’s when it’s time to set the traps.

 Irving Chappelear (photo by Jed Kirschbaum)

So on a drizzly, cold morning, Irving sets off in a motorboat across the lead gray Patuxent River. He grips the wheel with his left hand, while with his right he swings a steel hook on a long pole. He snags a buoy, and hauls up the line until a wire basket breaks the surface. Inside the trap, three finger-sized green eels shimmer with slime. He can sell these little ones as crab bait for about a buck and a quarter a pound. He can get twice as much for big eels, which are sold as delicacies to restaurants in Asia and Europe.

But Irving’s next two traps are empty. And as rain started to fall, he throws the empty traps back into the river and wondereds: Where have all the eels gone?

American eels are mysterious creatures. And the reasons for their disappearance around the world are as slippery and elusive as they are.

 American eel. (Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

Although no one’s ever seen it, all the American and European eels are believed to spawn in a single place, deep in the Atlantic Ocean under thick rafts of seaweed that form the Sargasso Sea. The larvae grow into transparent leaf-like creatures that are carried by the gulf stream to the coasts. As the glass eels drift toward shore, they change colors -- from yellow, to green, to black. They spend most of their lives far inland, in ponds and creeks, lurking under rocks during the day and hunting for bugs at night. After about eight years, the adult eels are ready to reproduce. Their eyes bulge to twice the normal size and their skin turns silver. Driven by lust, they thrash thousands of miles back downstream to the spot in the ocean where they were born -- without eating the whole trip. Instead, they digest their own stomachs for energy. At the end of their epic journey, amid the seaweed and rotting shipwrecks in the Sargasso Sea, they release millions of eggs and die -- their death creating new life.

Because their life cycle is so dependent on ocean currents, one theory is that eels are declining because global warming is slowing their conveyor belt. Disruption of weather patterns could explain why eels have virtually disappeared from Canada and Europe, but not yet the Chesapeake Bay, which is closer to the Sargasso Sea. But scientists say there are other factors, too -- large dams blocking streams, overfishing, industrial pollutants called PCB's and Japanese parasites that are boring tiny holes in the swim bladders of American eels.

  (Sun photo by Jerry Jackson)

After hauling up 40 traps, Irving Chappelear has a few dozen eels. Enough to pay for his fuel -- but not enough to make a living.

The eels wrestle in a barrel, their slime-slathered bodies making sucking,  squeaking sounds -- as if singing in a strange tongue. It’s a song that’s fading on the Chesapeake Bay.

Posted by Tom Pelton at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

 FOE OF HUMANITY?                         (Sun photo)

Surrender meat to defeat global warming?  Many red-meat loving Americans would recoil at such a thought. (Some might even want to roast and eat anyone who suggested such a thing).

But it's hard to avoid the subject -- especially in light of a new report.  The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, working with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, released a study today on the environmental costs of industrial-style livestock operations.  One of the facts presented in the report is that livestock worldwide produce 18 percent of all greenhouse gas pollution, mainly in the form of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.  That's more pollution than is produced by the whole human transportation sector.

Think about it: cows and pigs are worse for the climate than cars and airplanes.

The report doesn't suggest that we give up meat to save the planet. But others have, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has publicly attacked Al Gore for eating meat and refusing to adopt their position. It's an extremely controversial idea...and frankly one that some environmentalists try not to even discuss, for fear of alienating mainstream voters. (The worry is that Average Joe will react by thinking, "What? Give up cheeseburgers and steaks?  Better to give up all this fuss about global warming." )

The anti-meat argument is expressed by the website "Go Veg" :

"Global warming has been called humankind's "greatest challenge" and the world's most grave environmental threat, and science shows that one of the most effective ways to fight global warming is to go vegetarian. Stars such as Sir Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde are lending their voices to share what science has already proven --that the meat industry is one of the leading sources of the greenhouse gases that lead to global warming."

Readers, what do you think of this?

My personal reaction: forget about the politics of the idea (this would be about as popular as outlawing more than one child as a method of fighting global warming).  Would human health suffer if everyone gave up meat?  Especially the health of children, who might have a hard time getting enough protein?  Would obesity rates increase even more if people abandoned meats and consumed more carbohydrates?  Give me your thoughts. 

Posted by Tom Pelton at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
                    

 Photo of Eurasian water milfoil (an exotic species) co-existing with stargrass (a native species) at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. Picture by Jed Kirchbaum of The Sun.

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Exotic species sometimes inspire fear and loathing.  Think kudzu.

But in parts of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, non-native aquatic vegetation appears to be helping a resurgence of underwater plant colonies that are important habitat for fish and crabs.

A report from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources today said that underwater bay grasses increased 10 percent from 2006 to 2007.  Aquatic vegetation last year covered 65,000 acres of the Chesapeake Bay's bottom, up from 59,000 acres in 2006.  That's still only about a third of what a healthy bay would look like -- and down substantially from the 90,000 acres covered with aquatic vegetation in 2002.  But at least it got better last year instead of worse.

Among the areas that saw growth last year was the upper Potomac River, where an exotic Asian aquarium plant -- hydrilla -- is helping to stabilize the river system, clean the water and provide a healthy habitat for other plants.  That's not what was predicted in the 1980's, when hydrilla was denounced as an invasive, river-strangling monster, and the Army Corps of Engineers talked about bombing it with pesticides. 

"Hydrilla is seen as a scourge, but certainly it is providing a habitat," said Bob Orth, a scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.  "That's where the fishing boats line up for bass, right near the hydrilla." 

Nancy Rybicki, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, published a study on hydrilla in the Potomac River last year that came to the same conclusion: that it's not overwhelming native plants, or suffocating the river, as many people expected.

And it's not just on the Potomac River where hydrilla is spreading, apparently with positive results.  The Asian aquarium plant -- first dumped from a fish bowl into a Florida river in the 1980's -- is also growing in the James, Pamunkey and Chickahominy rivers in Virginia, among others.

"Hydrilla is in every single tributary in the bay.  And you can't deny the fact that hydrilla facilitates the growth of a lot of native species, because it provides a filter for water. You have clear plumes of water coming out of the hydrilla beds," said Orth. "If you go back to the newspaper accounts in 1982, they called it the hydrilla gorilla... But now we're seeing healthy populations of both native and nonnative plants together."

An area that experienced even more growth in aquatic vegetation is at the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay, where the Susquehanna River empties into the estuary.  In that area, bay grasses covered 19,000 acres last year, up from 15,500 acres in 2006, according to the DNR report.

Most of the growth in the Susquehanna flats is in wild celery, a native plant.  But another exotic plant, milfoil, is coexisting with the celery and other species.  This peaceful cohabitation isn't what many people expect.  For example, just last June, The New York Times ran a story about milfoil sparking fear among boaters in the Adirondacks.  "A Battle Against an Aggressive Green Invader from the Deep," screamed the headline.

And that was from a newspaper often called the "gray old lady."  How about this for a headline: "Maligned Milfoil Sues for Libel, Battles Purple Prose."

Posted by Tom Pelton at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

It is always a pleasure to work with the talented Karl Ferron. He joined me on Hoopers Island to create this video on the crabbers of the island and how they will be affected by the coming restrictions.

The story is here.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
                    

Sun Food Editor and mom of two Kate Shatzkin, who is more organized than I could ever hope to be, has a relatively new blog called "Charm City Moms."

Her blog has regular features, including themed weeks, a regular father's page and recipes, which I really should try one of these days.

Next week, she wants to have a "Green Week," and she's looking for topics that her readers might want to hear about. Already, she's posted something about what to do with all of that lovely kids' art that doesn't fit on the fridge. Do you recycle it? Keep it?

Here's a link to her blog. Just scroll down to get to the green week post and comment away...

Posted by Rona Kobell at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

If you happen to be going to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore this weekend, you may run into some young people from the GreenMount school who have formed a club to help save the red knot bird.

They will be handing out literature and talking about the shorebird and its plight in honor of "Earth Week."

Mike Hudson, a 12-year-old bird-lover who lives in the city, learned about the beautiful bird, and how its numbers were decreasing substantially.

As noted previously on bayblog, the red knots fly from the Tierra Del Fuego to the arctic, stopping along thre shores of Delaware Bay (Sluaghter Beach, Bowers Beach, etc.) to gorge on fatty horseshoe crab eggs to fill them up for their long trip north. They arrive emaciated, they leave full.

But recent years of harvesting horseshoe crabs en masse has endangered the bird, and states such as Delaware and New jersey have tried to put in moratoriums on harvesting horseshoes to help the bird. Those have not held up in court, forcing the states to instead restrict the harvest.

Anyway, the kids are advocating for horseshoe crabbing to be banned in Maryland and Virginia, as well as Delaware. You can learn mroe about their platform on their web site.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Thanks to Sun editor Jon Morgan for posting an update earlier in the week on the Virginia crab decision.

Daily Press reporter Patrick Lynch has more today about politicians in the Old Dominion state asking the federal government to declare a state of emergency, and thus get federal disaster aid to help the crabbers.

Several legislators are behind the push, including Congressman Robert Wittman, who used to have a seafood-related job and has many watermen constituents.

With the early closure of Virginia's season, Maryland watermen won't be in the position they were in six years ago, when Maryland closed early but Virginia kept crabbing. As a result, Maryland watermen said, the "sooks" that the state sought to save went into Virginia baskets. Not that watermen in either state are happy about this: there's no doubt it will severely cut into their business.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Maryland Public Television has proclaimed this week "Chesapeake Bay Week."

They have a slate of very interesting programming, including a documentary about a guy that traversed the state eating all the blue crab he could. As previously mentioned on this blog, "Weary Shoreline" is worth checking out; there also is a program on the retracing of the Capt. John Smith journey in the shallop. I would have mentioned it earlier, but I've been on the road a lot this week and not at my computer.

The whole schedule is here.

Yours truly will be making an appearance on MPT Friday, or at least an appearance in its studios for a show called "State Circle." I'm not sure when it will air, but I've been promised it will focus on the Chesapeake Bay. Good thing, too, because if they started asking me about green-friendly products, as they did the last time I went on televsion in D.C., I'd have to swiftly change the subject to crabs, or something else bay-related.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

For the past several months that I have been writing this travel feature, I have been focused on the destination. It occurs to me it might be worth it to highlight the journey.

If you are flying in from somewhere else and seeking to enjoy what the Eastern Shore has to offer. you might want to consider the BayRunner shuttle.  It takes passengers from Cambridge, Salisbury and Easton to BWI airport, and back. It's not cheap, and they do charge extra for your golf bag, but it might be nice to consider if you are staying in a town such as Easton, where the attractions are pretty walkable. Check their web site for schedules and fares.

On the other end, you can take the shuttle to BWI, then light rail from BWI into the city to explore soem urban sites.

I just heard about the shuttle a week or so ago, when the Chesapeake Bay Hyatt announced it had been added as a stop on the route.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Posted by Jon Morgan at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

In honor of Earth day, the Washington Post's web site has what they are calling a "green section."

It includes an obituary for Earth Day, story questioning whether we still need it and the paper's recent investigation into mountaintop mining in West Virginia.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

DNR unveiled its proposal yesterday. Details are here.

It's definitely not as restrictive as crabbers feared, but the early closure is going to hurt Dorchester County and the Lower Bay. And for recreational crabbers, the ban on keeping all females, except peeler crabs, remains.

There will be more on crabbing this week in The Sun and on the web site.

I won't have lots of time to blog, but I will do my best to keep everyone updated.

Today, Virginia votes on its restrictions. I'll post them when I'm able.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Posted by Rona Kobell at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

With all this talk of crabs, I have lost sight of one important detail: rockfish season is upon us.

This Saturday, the Boatyard Bar and Grill in Annapolis is hosting its 7th annual rockfish tournament. It's catch and release, and the proceeds will go to bay charities. Boatyard owner Dick Franyo, a former Alex.Brown guy, is a sailor who for years has given generously to bay causes. Plus, he (or whomever it is that actually does the cooking) makes a delicious fish sandwich.

Warning, clicking on to the website will make infectious Caribbean musack stay in your head for the rest of the afternoon.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Posted by Rona Kobell at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

George Washington was born here. James Monroe grew up near here. Alexander Graham Bell and his family summered here on breaks from inventing the telephone. And casinos once thrived here.

 That's a lot going on in a town of about 3,000 people that I'd never heard of until a few days ago.

The media came to Colonial Beach this week and then quickly left, but after I filed my story, I took a walk around to see what I could learn about this town. I must have looked like a local because a guy in a pick-up truck rolled down his window to ask me where the trailer court was. I had no idea, of course.

Colonial Beach offers beautiful views of the Potomac River, on whose banks it sits. Because it's at the low-watermark of the border with Maryland and Virginia, the law allowed for casinos on piers that extended into Maryland waterways. Slot machines went strong until about 1958.

When I called the Potomac River Fisheries Commission to ask about a place with wifi for my computer for the governor's event, she said Colonial Beach was a "real small town' that didn't even have a coffee shop.

Well, it does, and it's a cute little one on Washington Street. It also has a library, which is pretty nice and is a LOT bigger than the one on Chincoteague, or at least the old one. The town has a Days Inn, which you can find reviews for here. It also has several Bed and breakfasts, including Bell's summer home. (Insert lame telephone joke here.) I walked past the Tides Inn and it looked nice and is centrally located, though I didn't go inside.

Seems to me this would be a good start for exploration of the Northern Neck. A word to the wise, though: it's a haul. As mentioned in a previous post, 301 is a traffic-clogged, stop-and-go road. My guess is that Colonial Beach is about two hours from Crofton/Bowie under normal condtions, instead of the hour I was predicting from the map.

Also, the Potomac River Bridge is not unlike the Cyclone at Coney Island; you go up, and you pray to God it's not quite as steep as it feels when you come down.

The people who are scared of the Bay Bridge should try this one; it might make them less afraid of the ole' William Preston Lane.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

It was a long slog down to Colonial Beach yesterday -- whoever runs Mapquest and said it would take 2 hours and 20 minutes to get there from Baltimore obviously has never encountered the highway known as Route 301. It took me every bit of three hours to get down there, and the other reporters I met (from Annapolis and Richmond) told of drives that were almost as long.

Once there, we waited about half an hour for O'Malley's chopper to arrive. Then there was about 40 minutes of introductions of everyone on the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, a plug for the artist whose canvases decorated the conference room, and some speeches that didn't really focus on the crabs.

Then it was DNR crab expert Lynn Fegley's turn to give a crab presentation that she, and probably many of the reporters who have heard it, have nearly memorized by now. Yesterday's included a bit of new information from the winter dredge survey, which showed juvenile crabs slightly up and spawning crabs slightly down. Hmm. I'm thinking that getting a story out of this will be challenging.

Then, at about 4:30 (event was supposed to end at 4) we go outside for speeches by Governors Tim Kaine and Martin O'Malley. Kaine talks first, for about 10 minutes, about how the states need to work together to protect crabs.

Then it's O'Malley's turn. He, too, talks about the crab for awhile, how it's important, and then he says he and Kaine are pushing for an immediate 34 percent reduction in the crab harvest.

Wow. Okay, an act of news has been committed. He wraps up, questions are taken, and the chopper whisks him away after a couple of photos. I look down at the press packet I got when we got outside and sure enough there is a press release on the 34 percent reduction.

I tried to leave quickly so I could make our impending deadline, but I didn't get far before someone from Potomac River Fisheries Commission stopped me to talk about female sponge crabs.

(My one question for Kaine was, "If you want to increae the population, why does Virginia continue to let watermen harvest pregnant crabs?")

Kaine didn't really answer, referrring the question to his staff to sort out. But the Potomac fellow informed me that Maryland watermen almost certainly take out pregnant crabs, too; the Maryland crabs are just too early in their pregnancies for us to see their eggs.

In other words, two or three months pregnant as opposed to nine. He asked me if I thought it was any more okay to harvest them in early stages than it was at the end. I didn't really have an answer, but I'm thinking to myself, this is an argument I always managed to avoid in college, and I'm not going to start discussing it now.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Calling on all Baltimore area nature lovers!   You can help create a new map of the coolest hiking spots, organic food stores, farmers markets and other green resources in our area.

It's called the Baltimore Green Map. You might have heard about it this morning on WYPR 88.1 FM.  The project is part of an international campaign to get more information about green living out to residents of local areas around the world. Baltimore coordinator Janet Felsten was on the radio, announcing the website for our local map and describing how the concept works. She's inviting people from the community to make entries on a Google-based interactive map.  People can nominate their favorite park or walking trail, a healthy restaurant or a store where people can buy wholesome products. And then they and others can comment on the sites and give their opinions about them.

It's free.  But it requires folks to help out by adding to the green map.  So everyone pitch in! 

Check out the map so far by clicking here.

Or to get an explanation of the project, go to www.baltogreenmap.org.

Posted by Tom Pelton at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

  West Virginia wind farm, a few miles south of Maryland.  No turbines exist in Maryland, despite a state government that pledges action on global warming. Sun Staff photo.

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Wind power isn't looking popular in Maryland right now.  Meanwhile, nuclear power has picked up strong local support.  That might seem backward in the minds of some environmentalists, who portray wind turbines as a symbol of good and nuclear reactors as an emblem of evil.  Some have called this one of the most liberal states in America.  So why is the expected symbolism falling apart here?   

Consider this: In southern Maryland, Calvert County has been enthusiastically backing a proposal to build the first new nuclear reactor in the U.S. since Three Mile Island.  Most people who live around the Calvert Cliffs plant say they hardly notice the pair of more than 30-year-old reactors -- except for the fact that they generate much of the tax dollars that build their schools and fund their local government. They feel safe. And they say they wouldn't mind if a third reactor was built on the same property.  The few opponents of the expansion -- which would create one of the largest reactors in the world -- are mostly from out of town.

Meanwhile, in western Maryland, local outrage continues to mushroom over the proposed construction of the state's first wind turbines.  Residents in Garrett County can hardly remember a proposal that was as widely unpopular and brought so many angry citizens out to public meetings.  The issue isn't safety.  It's the industrialization of wooded mountaintops that are the heart of their rural identity and tourist economy.

Residents were jubilant in response to Gov. Martin O'Malley's decision this weekend not to allow the construction of wind turbines in two state parks in Western Maryland. This decision was just about public lands -- not private farms, where O'Malley supports wind turbines. But politically, the sites on private property in Garrett County have also drawn complaints and lawsuits.

 O'Malley announcing his opposition to wind turbines in Savage River State Forest on Saturday. AP photo.

"While we must continue to explore and make progress on creating a more sustainable and independent energy future for Maryland, we will not do so at the expense of the special lands we hold in the public trust," said O’Malley. "Our public land will continue to be managed for the essential environmental, recreational and economic values they provide for all of Maryland’s families and future generations."

Garrett County Commissioner Fred Holliday said: "It is especially important to have a Governor that listens to what the public wants.  Governor O’Malley did just that and for that, we are grateful.”

Jon Boone of Oakland had this response: "Governor Martin O’Malley’s recent announcement of his decision to protect Maryland’s public lands from industrial wind development came from the heart. Standing before a breathtaking early spring view of the Monroe Run vista and addressing about 200 Garrett Countians, the governor spoke eloquently about his stewardship obligations for passing down such natural beauty to our posterity -- our children’s children. He also commended the articulate passion of so many Western Marylanders."

Across the state in Aberdeen, Craig Herud was also happy to see the shadow of turbines vanish.  "While it was a tough call, I believe the governor made the right decision to not allow wind generation in state forests," he wrote. "We do have an obligation to future generations open space should be open space first. Once it's gone, we cannot make any more; there are other options for renewable power."

In Baltimore, Katherine Rylaarsdam thought the whole idea of clearing state forests to build wind turbines was goofy. "Any self-styled environmentalist who thinks destroying trees is a good way to fight global warming has rocks in his or her head," she wrote. "These people have no awareness of the importance of trees in the carbon cycle? We should be adding more, not clear-cutting the ones we have. The place for wind farms is in open areas, not in the middle of forests. Thank goodness the governor had sense enough to reject such a stupid proposal!"

The only email I received from anyone upset about the governor's decision came from a paid representative of the wind developers.

Maybe yes, maybe no.  It will be interesting to see which is built first in Maryland: the wind turbines, or the new nuclear reactor.  Theoretically, turbines proposed on private farms in Western Maryland could be raised next year.  But the developers are waiting for Congress to renew tax subsidies for wind farms.  Meanwhile, opponents are on the march.

An even more fascinating question is: Which would do more to fight global warming, hundreds of 40-story wind turbines? Or a single nuclear reactor?

Of course, nuclear power is a complex issue -- especially the question about why the federal government hasn't kept its promise and opened a central repository for spent fuel rods in Nevada. This is a problem.  But wind power is more complex than it seems, too -- starting with the fact that it can't replace coal burning or nuclear power, because it's too erratic and unreliable.  Wind can replace some burning of natural gas, which is good because natural gas supplies are rapidly running out in the U.S.  But wind turbines, because of their unpredictable power flow, must be backed up by natural gas powered turbines, which kick in quickly when the wind dies.  So when the natural gas runs out, what do we do with the wind turbines and their on-again, off-again electrical current?  What will back them up?

Let me know your thoughts.

Posted by Tom Pelton at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)