estuary

Chesapeake Bay and its management.

Chesapeake Bay is one of the largest estuaries in the world with its shores partly in Virginia and partly in Maryland, and an expected population of 30 million by 2020AD. There is a wide range of shorelines with wetlands used by wildfowl and also with valuable fisheries. It is heavily used for recreation but also for shipping, industry, sewage dispersal, dredge spoil disposal and power generating stations. Pressures for alterations to the Bay are very great and in 1973 over 2000 applications were made to the US Army Corps of Engineers for changes.