Underwater grasses photographed by Lefcheck A landmark paper authored by a power-house of Bay scientists has rocked the Chesapeake Bay for the past two months. The paper looks at the long-term effects of nutrient reductions in the Chesapeake Bay watershed on underwater grasses, or submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). It was published in the prestigious [...]
On March 5th, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam served as a panelist at the Blue Planet Forum at Old Dominion University (ODU). The forum is an annual event by ODU and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation that seeks to educate and engage the public on environmental issues. Gov. Northam and City Council member Andria McClellan on the [...]
Old Dominion University (ODU) scientist Richard Zimmerman published an op-ed in The Virginia-Pilot in March on how federal budget cuts could harm the Chesapeake Bay and the ocean at large. He discusses the proposed federal budget that cuts funding to NOAA by $1 billion, which could have huge effects in Hampton Roads. Richard Zimmerman, Old [...]
Carsten Prasse joined the Dept. of Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins as an assistant professor in February. Prasse’s research focuses on the fate of organic chemicals in the urban water cycle and the assessment of their impacts on environmental and human health. His research group applies high-resolution mass spectrometry for the identification of the [...]
The Chesapeake Community Modeling Program (CCMP) is accepting presentation abstracts for the 2018 Chesapeake Community Research & Modeling Symposium (ChesRMS '18) through March 1, 2018. Advancing observational and modeling research to support Chesapeake Bay management and restoration is the theme for this year's symposium which will be held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Annapolis, MD on June [...]
The Chesapeake Community Modeling Program (CCMP), Chesapeake Research Consortium (CRC), Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System/Chesapeake Focus Research Group (CSDMS/CFRG) and the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) convened a three-day STAC workshop to undertake a comprehensive review of the status of the current CBP management modeling system and discuss future directions for management modeling in the CBP with [...]
Nick DiPasquale led the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) for six and a half years, making him the second-longest serving director of the program. DiPasquale came on as Director in August 2011, and served in that role until this past December, when he retired. On why he was drawn to the position, he said, "it [...]
The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office has an acting director while current director, Peyton Robertson, is on an extended detail serving as senior advisor to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Weather Service. In the meantime, Sean Corson has been serving in the role since June. Corson had served as Deputy Director since 2008, but [...]
The Virginia seafood industry is booming. The Commonwealth leads the nation in the production of aquaculture raised hard clams, and the first on the East Coast in producing eastern oysters. Virginia Sea Grant (VSG) was awarded $1.9 million in research funds from NOAA's National Sea Grant Aquaculture Initiative, which provided $9.3 million in all through an aquaculture research [...]
For a while in December and a bit of January, many Bay residents were asking, "where did all the water go?" During the cold spell the region experienced, many residents noticed low water levels lasting for a while. Some worried that the low tides would kill oyster populations exposed to the cold air above. Virginia Institute [...]
