|
Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes, 7/07
The blue crab's scientific name translates as "beautiful swimmer that is savory." Blue crab meat is sometimes compared
to the sweetness of lobster meat; the flavor best appreciated by cracking and eating steamed hardshells or feasting on
softshells. Crab cakes are prepared in restaurant and home kitchens in innumerable ways, steamed, sauteed, fried or baked.
They are often put on rolls to make delicious sandwiches. The best crab cakes are made from all-lump blue crabmeat with
just enough other ingredients to hold them together. The smaller the number of ingredients is, the better the crab
cakes are. And everyone has their own preference for just the right spices. Chesapeake Bay crab is also used to
make Crab Imperial, or in crab soup and crab dip.
Senator Barb Mikulski's Favorite Crab Cake Recipe
Chesapeake Beach Water Park, 6/07
The Chesapeake Beach Water Park
opened in the summer of 1995 to serve the local community. Eight water
slides, fountains, waterfalls, a lagoon, kids' activity pool,
water volleyball area, and more treat everyone to a cool time.
The adjacent recreational center houses a gym for basketball
or dances, a game room with pool table, meeting
rooms with windows over-looking the water, and much more. The
entire center has become a central part of the community, with
something for everyone. The Chesapeake Beach Water Park is owned
and operated by the citizens of Chesapeake Beach.
Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs, 5/07
In Chesapeake Bay country blue crabs are king. Not only do crabs bring tourists from around the region and beyond to
enjoy a taste of summer, but the crabs have supported shoreside communities for generations. They have become part
of the very fabric of life in Maryland and Virginia.
Blue crabs have grown in importance since the demise of the Bay's oyster industry, which once overshadowed crabs
but has been crippled by overfishing, pollution and disease. While local watermen and their waterside communities
once depended on oysters in the winter and blue crabs in the summer (and striped bass, croaker and other fish in
between) the crab has now become the mainstay of the Bay's commercial fisheries. According to one recent study,
about two-thirds of the fishing income made by watermen in the Bay depends on the blue crab.
So much is riding on Calinectes sapidus, the Bay's beautiful swimmer, that managing the crabs has
become a top priority in the region, and has brought about a delicate dance among regulators, environmentalists,
politicians, and the watermen and seafood processors who depend on the blue crab for their livelihood.
Blue Crab Fun Facts:
- Calinectes sapidus means "Beautiful swimmer that is savory".
- Crabs reach maturity in 12 to 18 months.
- Very few crabs live longer than three years.
- The largest crab recorded from Maryland was a male measuring 9 inches; however bigger crabs (10-11 inches)
have been seen in crab surveys.
- The annual harvest of crabs from Chesapeake Bay accounts for over 50 percent of total U.S. harvest.
- Cannibalism of young blue crabs by larger crabs is common and seems to control population.
- A spring-spawned crab can reach a size of two to three inches by its first winter.
Chesapeake Bay Oysters, 4/07
Oysters are a type of shellfish known as a bivalve. Clams and scallops are also bivalves. Bivalves have two shells;
held in place by a powerful adductor muscle. Oysters are terrific filterers. Over a century ago, when American
oysters were still profoundly abundant, these miniature vacuum cleaners were capable of filtering all of the Bay's
water every three days. As oysters remove algae and other nutrients from the water, making it noticeably cleaner,
sunlight is able to penetrate to the Bay floor, permitting sea grasses and other wetland plants to be part of a
healthy and diverse ecosystem.
Though Native Americans harvested Bay oysters for thousands of years, without damaging its ecosystem, Colonial settlers
changed this equation by employing more harvesters and more sophisticated harvesting techniques. By the mid 1800s,
oystering was a major industry in the Middle Atlantic States. By the late 1880s, more than 10 million bushels of
oysters were removed from the Chesapeake Bay annually, and one fifth of all Americans employed in fishing
harvested oysters in the Chesapeake! Even as late as 1980, 500 million pounds of shellfish and finfish were
annually pulled from the Bay.
Oyster harvests in Chesapeake Bay have had a 95% decline since
1980 and are probably to be at their lowest recorded level. Although reproductive success of the oyster remains
high (as measured by larval oyster, or spat, set on oyster reefs and other suitable substrates; oyster populations
have suffered from over-harvesting to low levels, two parasitic diseases (Dermo and MSX), habitat loss (including
decreased water quality), and being eaten by bay predators.
Fortunately efforts to clean up the bay have seen some success. Hopefully this will result in increases in
The Chesapeake Bay Cultural History, 3/07
Artifact dating shows that bands of territorial, semi-nomadic people
lived in what is now Maryland in the beginning of the Paleoindian Period (11,000 to 7,500 B.C.). During the Archaic Period
(7,500 to 1000 B.C.), the inhabitants became somewhat sedentary as food sources increased with the
formation of the Chesapeake Bay and general warming of the climate. The population increased. During the Woodland Period
(1000 B.C.-A.D. 1600), people became even more sedentary and living groups switched from temporary habitats to
permanent villages. Indian tribes included the Conoy, Delaware, Nanticoke and Powhatan.
European settlement marked the beginning of rapid and dramatic changes for the Chesapeake Bay area. The first
Europeans lead by Captain John Smith, settled on the Bay at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. In 1634,
the first white settlers in Maryland founded St. Mary's City. Tobacco imported from the West Indies
flourished in the rich soil of the Bay area and the hope of profit and new life attracted hordes of Europeans.
With the creation of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828, grain was transported to the Bay from the midwest.
Shipping, ship building, fishing and canning became major industries for the area.
The Chesapeake Bay, 2/07
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States
and one of the most diverse. It covers approximately 4,400 square miles and stretches 206 miles from
Virginia Beach, VA, to Havre de Grace, MD, at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. Its watershed drains
a region of 64,000 square Miles. The Chesapeake is the shipping artery for both Norfolk, VA, and Baltimore, MD.
The bay is highly valued for its marine life, waterfowl, fishing, and boating. At the same
time, it is threatened by environmental degradation caused by man-induced pollution from a wide variety of sources.
There is little awareness, however, that the rapidly rising relative sea level within the bay is having
dramatic and wide-ranging effects. Islands populated in colonial times have disappeared due to submergence
and related shore erosion. The artifacts of early European settlers and prehistoric peoples are sometimes
found by watermen working over areas now covered by the shallow waters of the bay. Sharps Island, described
and mapped by John Smith in 1608, has disappeared, although it was shown on maps and charts as recently as
the beginning of the 20th century. Submerged and eroded Sharps Island, formerly at the mouth of the Choptank
estuary, is recalled only by a prominent lighthouse erected in 1882 and is now covered by twelve feet of water.
Expanding wetlands are claiming low-lying communities on Smith Island and Tangier Island. Settlements begun
in the 18th and 19th centuries, together with their churches and cemeteries, are often surrounded by the
rising water of the bay during periods of extreme high tides. This is a precursor to their inevitable
submergence.
The Chesapeake Beach Railway Museum, 1/07
Beginning in 1900, a special railroad, the
Chesapeake Beach Railway, brought vacationers to the original resort at Chesapeake
Beach from Washington, and steamboats brought excursionists from
Baltimore. The success and ultimately the survival of the resort and railroad were
inextricably linked. When the railroad failed during the Great Depression of the
1930s, actually ceasing operations in 1935, the resort could not survive.
The original railroad station is now the Chesapeake Beach Railway Museum,
which houses early resort, amusement park and railroad memorabilia. The museum is open daily
from May through September and on weekends in April and October.
More Tourists Visiting Calvert County, 12/06
Calvert County is Maryland's smallest county but recent statistics show
that over twelve per cent more tourists visited Calvert County in 2006 than in 2005.
They came to see attractions such as the Calvert Marine Museum, Kings Landing Park,
Flag Ponds Nature Park, Annmarie Garden and of course Chesapeake Beach and North Beach.
Many people in Washington, Northern Virginia and the Baltimore area are looking for day trip
destinations and Calvert County is perfect for these short trips. There is a range of
attractions in Calvert County and Chesapeake Beach for visitors - trails, beaches, shops,
museums, restaurants and marinas.
|
