U.S. to study placing new oysters in bay

[baby_bear]

If you are interested in the topic of introducting foreign species to native ecosystems, this is fascinating.

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.oyster25jan25,0,286338.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

<snip>

The federal government is starting an unprecedented study of proposals to introduce Asian oysters into the Chesapeake Bay, part of a desperate attempt by Maryland and Virginia to replace a native shellfish population all but wiped out by disease.
Officials at the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency say they believe it's the first time that federal officials have considered whether it's a good idea to introduce a foreign species into a body of water and encourage it to reproduce.

</snip>

much more....

This worries me because it is so driven by $$$$$$.

s_m

[treepig]

1. what a bunch of idiots . . . perhaps a better idea would be to

actually clean up the bay instead of cutting funds:

the federal gov't is cutting funding

"It seems like there's a rollback a day in the EPA," said Sue Brown, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters. "That is not going to mean good things for our health and cleaning up Chesapeake Bay."


The fiscal 2004 federal budget unveiled this week cuts funding for wastewater treatment plant upgrades in Maryland to $20 million, down from about $32 million in fiscal 2002. Another $30 million was cut for Virginia and Pennsylvania.


"We're going to be witnessing some serious setbacks in our ongoing efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay watershed if these funding cuts are implemented," said Jesse Jacobs, a spokesman for Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md.


Larry Simms, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association, said the proposal suggests the administration is "not being serious about cutting pollution in the Chesapeake Bay."


Theresa Pierno, Maryland executive director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the cut places the state further behind in its drive to reduce nitrogen pollution.


http://tools.mdlcv.org/objects/view.acs?object_id=2263

and the state is chipping in to make sure the bay stays polluted

BIG CHICKEN AND THE BAY
June 20, 2003
Washington Post
Page A24
Editorial
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14733-2003Jun19.html
Any state-stumping politician in Maryland knows, according to this
editorial, the photo-op appeal and importance of paying homage to the
Chesapeake Bay. As candidate and now governor, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich
Jr. has extolled the virtues of its waterways, dutifully adding the standard
call for continued cleanup efforts. Mr. Ehrlich also knows that on the
Delmarva peninsula, chickens -- about a billion of them at any given time --
are big business, not eager for tight controls.
During his campaign for governor, Mr. Ehrlich was cited as noting his
sponsorship in Congress of legislation to fund sewage system upgrades,
stating that as governor he would make this issue a priority. He also said
he would seek to ease rules that have been holding the big poultry companies
accountable at least in part for pollution caused by chicken waste flowing
into the bay. Last Friday the governor delivered on one of those pledges: He
announced that he is getting rid of the requirements aimed at requiring the
companies to deal with the ecological damage that this industry inflicts on
the bay. Instead, he said he will look for "innovative" voluntary measures
or economic incentives to curb the flow of millions of pounds of phosphorous
and nitrogen into the bay and the waters flowing into it.

http://131.104.232.9/animalnet/2003/6-2003/animalnet_june_20.htm

[baby_bear]

3. Good grief, I had no idea

Is Ehrich a popular governor in Maryland? I was very surprised when he was elected.

I cringe whenever I hear "voluntary" in terms of environmental regulations, because it invariably means "more pollution."

Thanks for your informative post, treepig.

s_m

[treepig]

4. my information was a bit out-dated

but i see ehrlich is still at it, as evidenced by a thread in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=328472

on edit, a few months ago i spent a couple of hours writing a well reasoned (for me at least) letter to mr. ehrlich proposing that the "anything into oil" technology might be an attractive solution to the chicken shit problem:

http://www.megafoundation.org/UltraHIQ/HIQNews/2003-5-14_Anything_into_Oil.htm

basically, chicken waste would supply a totally suitable feedstock for this technology - the major obstacle probably is for the farmers to come up with the $20,000,000 to build a plant. but, despite the budget woes, it's hard to imagine that the state couldn't afford to build a least one pilot plant (which according to all accounts, could then operate at least at the break even point) - but the "killing two birds with one stone" approach (solving the bay's pollution problem, and ameloriating the "peak oil" crisis) is probably just to sensible for a republican. in retrospect, i probably should have just spent the time hitting myself over the head with a 2x4.

[NNadir]

5. Only a complete idiot would even think of such an idea.

The importation of the Asian Chestnut Tree into the US in 1905, on the grounds that the Asian Nut was slightly bigger, lead to IMO the greatest ecological disaster on US soil, the near extinction of the magnificient American Chestnut, called the "Redwood of the East." (Some trees were nearly 1000 years old.)

These people are simply pigs.

Clean the bay, don't kill it.

[lastknowngood]

2. We've bee working for the last 10 years

reintroducing real oysters in selected areas we have had good success but with no money except local groups it's been hard. If they would just ban all oystering for five to ten years and put some money back into it we could have them back. They want the Asian critter because it stands pollution better. Oysters actually clean the bay, so you can imagine what would then accumulate in the flesh.

[mastein]

6. Anyone remember Zebra mussels

As any practitioner of environmental health knows, a similar scheme to "clean-up" the Mississippi River basin was hatched almost a generation ago using Zebra mussels. The plan was ill-thought out to say the least. See, the mussels have no natural predators in the river and have taken over wide areas at the base of both the Mississippi and several feeders. Any professional worth their salt knows the story, either from grad school or as it happened. In either event, this is a bad bad idea. Ehrlich won by a decent margin and is now the first R governor in a generation in MD. Needless to say he is a moderate and if he were to try this would lose a large number of votes along the bay and it could cost him his job in 06.