CNN recently joined local commercial fisherman, Don Pierce, on a day of blue crab fishing in Chesapeake Bay. However, there were little crabs to be found due to the deteriorating state of health for these waters.
Development on the shoreline, population growth in the area and runoff from area farms and lawns have left the bay polluted with phosphorus, fertilizers and untreated waste. Pierce has been working these waters for 48 years now and says, “When I started in the late ’60s, there was commercial rock fishing, there was clamming, there was oystering, crabbing. Most of that is gone now.