History of the Chesapeake Bay

By Brad Revere

  • The people in the area begin using dredges to harvest oysters. Dredges completely rip up oyster beds.

  • The first iron-chain suspension bridge is completed across the Potomac River near Georgetown. This makes it possible for towns to expand. It also makes trade and commerce easier.

  • The economy shifts from tobacco production to livestock, wheat, and corn production.

  • Virginia bans dredging for oysters because it is too destructive to oyster beds. Maryland continues to allow dredging.

  • The first commercial steamboat on Chesapeake Bay waters begins service. Steamboats carry lots of different kinds of things to towns around the area—mail, shipments of things, and passengers.

  • States begin outlawing commercial hunting.

  • Maryland bans oyster dredges, because it begins to sense that oysters are being over-harvested.

  • Oysters are being shipped in jars that are packed in ice cut from the Bay. The railroads allow the oysters to travel as far away as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  • There’s such a high demand for oysters that watermen are forced to go out to the deeper waters in search of them. They find huge supplies in the Tangier Sound and dredge tons of oysters from there.

  • Watermen in the area begin using crab scrapes to catch crabs. Crab scrapes are like oyster dredges. They pick up soft-shelled crabs from underwater grasses.

  • The skies and waterways are suffering from intense pollution. Factory smoke is making the sky black. Sediment and sewage is flowing into the water. Industrial waste and human and animal waste is a huge problem.

  • Skipjacks are invented. These are swift wooden boats that are made specifically to be able to navigate the shallow waters of the Chesapeake.

  • The oyster harvest in Maryland has reached an all time high of 15 million bushels per year. Oysters are called the Chesapeake’s “white gold”.

  • Newport News, Virginia is chosen to be a major shipyard. Previously it had been a small town. But now its population begins to boom.

  • The Cull Law is passed. It sets a minimum size for oysters taken from the Bay. Any oysters smaller than 2.5 inches have to be returned to the water.

  • Lots of sewage and industrial waste is being dumped into the Bay. The water quality is really bad. People start noticing phytoplankton (algae) growing in the water. This causes a big problem for the underwater grasses and oysters.

  • Crab pots are developed, which lure crabs into the pots and trap them. The crabs are attracted to bait put inside the pots.

  • The blue crab population is experiencing a decline. Crabbers are only landing half the amount of blue crabs as they were in previous years.

  • The use of chemicals to fertilize crops becomes a widespread practice. Chemicals replace manure and marl as the fertilizers of choice.

  • New improvements in boats and fishing equipment make it easier for watermen to catch larger amounts of fish. This causes a decline in the population of many fish species.

  • Both Maryland and Virginia have now created water pollution control agencies to help monitor and reduce pollution in the Bay and its rivers.

  • A new oyster disease hits the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay. It is called MSX, and it devastates the oyster populations there.

  • There is a severe shortage of oysters. Oysters used to make up the bulk of the Chesapeake Bay seafood industry. But now they only make up 10% of it.

  • The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is completed. It travels underneath the Chesapeake Bay to connect the Eastern Shore and Virginia Beach.

  • A toxic chemical, called Kepone, is found in the James River in Virginia. This chemical seriously threatens fish, wildlife, and human health.

  • Lots of laws are passed to help the Chesapeake Bay. The health of the Chesapeake Bay even becomes a major issue in the presidential campaigns.

  • The Environmental Protection Agency establishes the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP). The CBP is created to combat all of the alarming problems that people are seeing in the watershed area.

  • Maryland’s oysters are devastated by the Dermo disease.

  • A second Chesapeake Bay Agreement is signed. This one sets a goal of reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in the Bay by 40% by the year 2000. It also begins studying the air pollution that gets into the Bay.

  • The oyster harvest in Maryland is at an all time low. Only 80,000 bushels are harvested. This is only 4% of the level it was at in 1884.