Abstract

The Chesapeake Bay is a large estuary on the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The estuary receives fresh water inputs from a watershed encompassing six states and Washington, D.C. The many species of fish and wildlife that proliferate in the Bay have made it an important natural resource to human inhabitants for thousands of years. Changes in the estuary and its watershed resulting from the dramatic increases the human population surrounding it have had deleterious effects on aquatic habitat and related fisheries. In response, a large-scale restoration effort was formally initiated in 1983 to rehabilitate the Bay.