Imperiled Chesapeake Bay

[coolhand]

Long video, but easy to watch and very sobering. :worried:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/view/

 

[alevin]

I travelled to China a number of years ago with high level restoration-scientist/manager of Chesapeake Bay Authority (multi-state jurisdiction), and participated in a celebration of salmon restoration efforts with Bill Ruckelshaus (currently resides in Seattle) as major player. Healthy fish populations are an indicator of clean water and functioning watersheds producing water for human use. There is a role for regulation to play, humans have a hard time thinking about impacts of their activities that go beyond the edge of their property, and ultimately affect their entire community. Clean air, clean water, underappreciated in this country. Travel to China, tiny bottles of bottled water for brushing teeth in 4- and 5-star hotels, drink Coke, 7-Up, tea and Tsing Tao beer at 5-star meals, no water on the table. People from other countries think Americans are fanatics in their emphasis on drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

 

[coolhand]

I travelled to China a number of years ago with high level restoration-scientist/manager of Chesapeake Bay Authority (multi-state jurisdiction), and participated in a celebration of salmon restoration efforts with Bill Ruckelshaus (currently resides in Seattle) as major player. Healthy fish populations are an indicator of clean water and functioning watersheds producing water for human use. There is a role for regulation to play, humans have a hard time thinking about impacts of their activities that go beyond the edge of their property, and ultimately affect their entire community. Clean air, clean water, underappreciated in this country. Travel to China, tiny bottles of bottled water for brushing teeth in 4- and 5-star hotels, drink Coke, 7-Up, tea and Tsing Tao beer at 5-star meals, no water on the table. People from other countries think Americans are fanatics in their emphasis on drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

I've been to Hong Kong a few times, but I don't think that's quite the same as mainland China.

I'm still working my way through all the video segments of this PBS special, and I'm wondering if they mention the latest threat...the Snakehead fish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channidae

 

[alevin]

I've been to Hong Kong a few times, but I don't think that's quite the same as mainland China.

I'm still working my way through all the video segments of this PBS special, and I'm wondering if they mention the latest threat...the Snakehead fish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channidae

HK airport-I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore when I saw AK-47s on soldiers' shoulders strolling down the concourses. Mainland-everything from armed guards at Three Gorges dam construction site, to grown women 4-2, 60#, to legless beggars, to desperate poor people "normal" sized, trying to sell us the only thing they had to sell-a pretty rock, a grapefruit, whatever; to a professor who risked his life when he refused to sign off that Three Gorges dam was ok environmentally, to tour guides who quietly without undue drama told us their personal stories of growing up during the Cultural Revolution and 60's famine, to curious students at a teachers college who had never seen a person write with their left hand before, to the caves that sheltered Chiang Kai-Shek government from Japanese bombers in WW2 and a Falung Gong protester being arrested in Tianenmen Square right in front of our eyes by plain-clothes police. Yes, it was an amazing trip, appalling and hopeful and thought-provoking. I was truly glad to set foot back on U.S. soil.

Snakeheads are probably in the documentary, they were found in the bay about 4-5 years ago. OMG!

 

[coolhand]

HK airport-I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore when I saw AK-47s on soldiers' shoulders strolling down the concourses. Mainland-everything from armed guards at Three Gorges dam construction site, to grown women 4-2, 60#, to legless beggars, to desperate poor people "normal" sized, trying to sell us the only thing they had to sell-a pretty rock, a grapefruit, whatever; to a professor who risked his life when he refused to sign off that Three Gorges dam was ok environmentally, to tour guides who quietly without undue drama told us their personal stories of growing up during the Cultural Revolution and 60's famine, to curious students at a teachers college who had never seen a person write with their left hand before, to the caves that sheltered Chiang Kai-Shek government from Japanese bombers in WW2 and a Falung Gong protester being arrested in Tianenmen Square right in front of our eyes by plain-clothes police. Yes, it was an amazing trip, appalling and hopeful and thought-provoking. I was truly glad to set foot back on U.S. soil.

Snakeheads are probably in the documentary, they were found in the bay about 4-5 years ago. OMG!

I'd been to HK both pre and post-UK rule. Never by plane. Only by US war ship. You saw a side of HK I did not. I was a tourist. It was the shopping that amazed me. Seemingly endless malls. I remember stanley market very well. http://www.hk-stanley-market.com/

I remember this skyway ride too. http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2953087430101011453TDVnBt

Had a great shrimp dinner at Jumbo's Floating Restaurant.

View attachment 6735

 

[alevin]

We spent very little time in HK, I only saw the airport itself, and the rest of HK from the air-a beautiful sight. Changed planes there to go to/from mainland. Had limited opportunities to shop, spent most of my free cash just doing the trip itself, brought back only a few small presents for family and a couple mementos for self, the experience itself was my focus, had never been overseas before ever. The original plan that year was birding in Australia, it got derailed, China trip ended up being more than adequate substitute.

 

[Buster]

Anyways..back on topic here in Virginia..I was stationed at NAS OCEANA/Virgina Beach..And the beaches and water back in the early 70's was putrid then..I wouldn't dare try eating any Blue Crab or anything else that came out of the Bay or off coast..I can't imagine how dirty it is now...

 

[alevin]

Anyways..back on topic here in Virginia..I was stationed at NAS OCEANA/Virgina Beach..And the beaches and water back in the early 70's was putrid then..I wouldn't dare try eating any Blue Crab or anything else that came out of the Bay or off coast..I can't imagine how dirty it is now...

As a former Virginian, all I can say is I liked Va's 70's motto far far better than the parallel "Maryland is for Crabs".

 

[coolhand]

I finished watching the entire series of videos and it was very interesting and disturbing at the same time. No mention of the Snakehead anywhere.

I was especially appalled when the subject turned to dead zones in waters around the world where nothing can live. Some are as large a small state.

Of course politics and money were often mentioned as a catalyst or obstacle to taking action. Problems that have been ongoing for many years.

 

[alevin]

I finished watching the entire series of videos and it was very interesting and disturbing at the same time. No mention of the Snakehead anywhere.

I was especially appalled when the subject turned to dead zones in waters around the world where nothing can live. Some are as large a small state.

Problems that have been ongoing for many years.

Yes, it is disturbing. Coastal areas, bays and estuaries are primary breeding grounds for many many species of fish and shellfish. Those areas also are first areas to be impacted by water pollution draining from inland areas and to be impacted by coastal development.

I learned how to swim in a brackish tidal tributary to the Potomac (Chesapeak tributary). Shipping channel and crab pots way out in the middle, dead clams (none alive) in the shallower swimming areas, buried in feet and feet and feet of mud and silt (combo of natural and human-accelerated soil erosion from upland areas). I never knew back then why only dead clams in swimming area. Wasn't until recent years here that I learned freshwater clams and mussels need clean streambottoms and not-too-polluted water to survive, getting covered up by mud too deep and not being fast movers, they suffocate.

Many shellfish also need healthy ocean-living, freshwater-breeding fish populations to move their young upriver (young attach to fish then drop off as they get bigger, as the fish move into headwaters to breed. Fish populations drop, freshwater shellfish populations drop.