TODDVILLE, Md. - Researchers from the Chesapeake Bay Program, the University of Maryland, and other partners have predicted the lowest dead zone amount ever reported in the Chesapeake Bay.
Dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay are predicted to be a record low this season.
At a 33% decrease, it's the lowest ever recorded.
Dead zones are parts of the water that have very little to no oxygen. Meaning, plant life and animals can die off. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, they're caused by run-off from agricultural fields and/ or urban areas.
For watermen, dead zones can hurt their livelihood.
Time Robinson who harvests crabs and oysters says, "It's something in that water. When that bad stuff comes in there, they cannot breath or it makes them sick. Something happens and on the bottom the crabs move away but if they're in that float then they can't move away. It has gotten so bad sometimes half of the crabs that I put in the floats start dying. I can loose half of them and I don't make any money on a dead crab."
Doug Myers with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation says this predicted decrease means we are doing something right. He says it's a combination of the lack of runoff from rainfall and the efforts to prevent runoff.
Myers says, There is less runoff from each farm field because we've done things like riparian buffers along the streams and cover crops on the crops to be able uptake the nitrogen and hold the soil in place. So when it does rain, not as much sediments runs off the property."
While Robinson says this news is great for his livelihood, he's holding his breath for the results by the end of the summer.
Robinson says, "We'll wait till the end of the summer. We'll see then because it's easy to predict it now but you know we'll see what happens because weather changes and conditions change."
CBF says the researcher's final results should be out by September.
