he Environmental Committee kicked off the new year with a special presentation by Maryland State Senator Sarah Elfreth on Wednesday, January 24.. A good friend of the bay, Sarah currently represents Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay Commission (CBC). She has been an effective advocate for environmental legislation and policy action in Maryland and bay-wide. Her presentation “Past, Present and Future of the Bay Movement” summarized the challenges we face in meeting the goals of the Chesapeake Bay Agreement.
In her presentation, Senator Elfreth highlighted the recent Chesapeake Bay Scientific & Technical Advisory Committee CESR Report and bay legislation that she has introduced. The report calls for refocusing efforts on coastal areas to achieve swimmable, fishable & accessible goals and taking a targeted versus blanket approach to interventions. In response, she has introduced two bills: the Whole Watershed Act and the Best in Show Act. It was an exciting and informative presentation.

Continuing our focus on bay issues, our February 21 lecture will be by Karl Blankenship, Editor-at-Large, Chesapeake Bay Journal. His presentation “30 years of Reporting on Chesapeake Bay: Reflections on Progress and Challenges” will review the history of bay stewardship and discuss current issues from a journalist’s unique perspective. You won’t want to miss this special presentation. Please register for the event (click here).
On the home front, we began implementation of our Chesapeake Oyster Alliance (COA) funded grant to develop video and photo documentation of the EYC oyster reef wave wall that is under our docks. Last fall, EYC spearheaded this collaborative team proposal for local partners to test-out and compare various submarine observational equipment on the seeded oyster beds that we have growing under A and C docks.
On January 10, EYC Project Lead- Bill Ball convened the first planning meeting of the scientists from our partner organizations: the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Oyster Recovery Partnership, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The partner organization leads are: Doug Myers, Jennica Moffat, Matt Ogbrun and Matt Gray, respectively.
Each organization will be conducting surveys over the winter through deployment of new “state-of-the-art” (and largely experimental) underwater videography equipment (including Remotely operated Underwater Vehicles, or RUVs).
Let us know if you want to observe this interesting scientific effort in action and stay tuned for what we hope will be some fascinating results!
For more information on the Environmental Committee’s efforts read our 2023 Annual Report here.