Ugh the bay

[missedshed]

What's to come of our bay in the next few weeks or even the long term? I came over the bridge this morning getting home from work and was shocked by how brown the water was. Water around Hemingways looked like coffee and there was so much debris floating around. There was so much you would need to navigate around the stuff just to paddle out. 1972 flooding changed the bay especially the flats, fish levels dropped and took a long time to recover. Today we have more people living by the susq. and more sewage plants and sewage generated along that stretch. I sure hope the bay doesn't take a hit. All this mud isn't good for our oyster population as they can be smothered.

[DOGFISH]

What's to come of our bay in the next few weeks or even the long term? I came over the bridge this morning getting home from work and was shocked by how brown the water was. Water around Hemingways looked like coffee and there was so much debris floating around. There was so much you would need to navigate around the stuff just to paddle out. 1972 flooding changed the bay especially the flats, fish levels dropped and took a long time to recover. Today we have more people living by the susq. and more sewage plants and sewage generated along that stretch. I sure hope the bay doesn't take a hit. All this mud isn't good for our oyster population as they can be smothered.

The bay has never recovered from Agnes, 1972. I recently wrote about this in another thread, about fresh water run off. It is a combination of problems originating during that period of time.

[muldoon]

The water looked very bad today when i drove over the bridge. I wonder if decent fishing in the upper bay might be done for the season?

[Yak Fish]

The bay has never recovered from Agnes, 1972. I recently wrote about this in another thread, about fresh water run off. It is a combination of problems originating during that period of time.

I've heard that Agnes had some pretty detrimental effects on the bay, specifically near the flats. I've heard people say that the bay water used to be rather clear or at least relatively speaking and the sea grasses were in much better shape. I've only been living in the area for less than 10 years so I don't know what is used to be.

Dogfish, can you link me to your thread on Agnes? I'd like to understand more about my favorite playground...the bay.

[DOGFISH]

I've heard that Agnes had some pretty detrimental effects on the bay, specifically near the flats. I've heard people say that the bay water used to be rather clear or at least relatively speaking and the sea grasses were in much better shape. I've only been living in the area for less than 10 years so I don't know what is used to be.

Dogfish, can you link me to your thread on Agnes? I'd like to understand more about my favorite playground...the bay.

All of the shoreline around the bay and creeks had 25 to 50 yards of seaweed out from the shore, thick seaweed depending on the drop off and depth of the water. I know, that it may be hard to believe that now, but it is true. As a kid, growing up on Stoney Creek, I could catch enough grass shrimp for a full day of fishing just by working a net along an edge of the seaweed, three or four times. The seaweed was full of life. I would catch many white and yellow perch, stripers and sunfish during a day of fishing. Even then, with the abundant life, the old timers would talk of what the bay used to be. Sad to think, now. As a kid, I was always down on the waterfront.

The seaweed did filter the runoff. However, back then there was not the human population around the bay as it is now. However, sad to say, that is when alot of the damage was done, such as the dumping of heavey metals and other polutants that would build up. Agnes just washed alot of additional toxins into the bay. Without the grass beds there was and is nothing to stop the runoff. The seagrass would also use up alot of nutrients. Alot of folks thought of the seaweed as a problem, as it tended to choke off their swimming areas. I can remember when there were so many oysters harvested from the bay, they used to gravel roads with oyster shell. You could smell a freshly covered road, with oyster shell, for weeks. Kind of funny now, thinking about it.

I really don't have a site about Agnes, I just remember the reports and the aftermath for the bay. In or about 85, they had to put a moratorium on keeping stripers. I am sure there are books and newspaper reports about the decline of the bay following Agnes. With the right tide, you could walk along the seaweed with a net catching soft crabs, with enough to for a dinner, during a tide change.

The bay water has always been stained, but it was clearer back then.

[Memory Maker]

........ yeah ........ the flats had sooo much grass that the only way through it was to pole ......... even the gas engines wouldn't make it. I remember 1 day in the 60's I went for a boat ride with some friends .......... we saw what looked like a sand bar ......... but like a mirage it kept looking farther away ...... traveling at full speed we were deep in the grass when the motor died ........ we had to get out of the boat and pull and row it with a paddle about 1/4 mile till we could start the engine. THe thick grass was as far as you could see back then. Agnes wiped it all out and it has not come back even close to what it was after 40 years ........

[archeryrob]

Some where around 435 municipal waste water treatment plants drain to the bay. Less farms and more people putting waste in those plants.

I wonder what could be causing it? (not really)

[DOGFISH]

There is a pretty good write up about Agnes on Wikipedia. Or just type in Hurrican Agnes in you search box.

[missedshed]

http://chesapeake.usgs.gov/featurese...conowingo.html

[surfdog]

all that silt and mud will definitely cover and smother a lot of oyster beds and grass beds that are trying to come back. bad all around for the upper bay