Chesapeake Bay Research Paper

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The Chesapeake Bay is a body of water formed where freshwater from rivers and streams flows into the ocean the largest in the United states. It holds more than 6,8 trillion litres of water and is home to more than 2.700 species of plants and animals, including the Eastern Oyster. Historically speaking, the bay was one of the most productive fisheries for the oyster, however today the population of the Eastern Oysters is dangerously low. Oysters provide ecological services; they filter water to remove sediments and toxins, and their reefs provides homes for the other aquatic life. Today the bay’s health is in critical condition from many factors, the main being agriculture. In order to save the bay and restore the bay to its full potential…show more content…
These are just some of the many the many factors that has led to the dramatic decline of this very important species. These factors have nearly wiped out a once powerful oyster industry. “Introducing nonnative oysters to the Chesapeake Bay is filled with unknowns and may have unintended consequences,” says a professor in the Bloomberg School’s of Environmental Health Sciences. These Asian oysters could have internal bacteria that could affect the Chesapeake Bay sea life. Also the people that live around the bay could become very ill. This is for few reasons first of all Asian oysters do not filter the sand as well as the native oysters. The Asian oysters are bigger and grow faster than the Native oyster in this bay. This means they also contain more bacteria. An experiment done at the Bloomberg School of Public health in which they took Asian Oyster and put them in a 30- gallon tank of water. The tank helped simulate the conditions in the Chesapeake Bay. The tank also exposed the Asian oyster to the same salinity water as at the bay. The Results of this experiment concluded that still after 33 days the bacteria was still found in the Asian oysters. As this bacteria is detrimental to the sea life and our health, the asian oysters should not be

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