Mollusk Culture for the Chesapeake Bay

Castagna, Michael

Publication

Mollusk Culture for the Chesapeake Bay

Castagna, Michael

Abstract

The water quality of the Chesapeake Bay has suffered a decline over the last 5 decades due to anthropomorphic activities. Insidious additions of industrial and farm pollutant to the Bay have created a situation where in many areas there are periodic sub lethal levels of chemicals. Although the juveniles and adults seem to survive these levels, they are obviously interfering with some early life stage of the living organisms that make up the bay fauna. Species whose early life history takes place out of the Bay (i.e. Cal!inectes sapidus) are less affected by this problem than those species whose eggs, embryos and larvae are found in the Bay. Over 70,000 chemical are being manufactured in the United States today. Of the e approximately 50,000 are being produced in excess of 1.3 billion pounds annually.