Aerial and Field SAV Observations

by Staff | March 28, 2012
Grasses decrease 21% Baywide due to extreme environmental conditions; Susquehanna Flats grass beds survive
An annual aerial survey led by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that the abundance of underwater grasses in Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers declined by 16,590 acres between 2010 and 2011.
The [...]

[Read more →]

$(function(){$(’#before_after_container’).beforeAfter({animateIntro : true, introDelay : 2000, introDuration : 500, showFullLinks : false, imagePath : ‘http://web.vims.edu/bio/sav/javascript/’ });});Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee dumped a large amount of water in the Susquehanna watershed, creating a muddy plume that extended down the Chesapeake Bay to the mid-bay islands and persisted for several months.
We [...]

[Read more →]

I got down to Belmont Bay today at low tide (about 1 hr before lowest tide) and took a couple of pictures from a hill overlooking the tidal Occoquan (picture 1, picture 2). This was quite near the monitor location on this map . SAV beds are quite visible in both pictures and on both [...]

[Read more →]

Greetings SAV friends and colleagues! It looks like another summer is about to end and as in past years, there seems to be both good news and not so good news with SAV in the bay. We have made good progress in acquiring photography. We completed the entire lower bay by the end [...]

[Read more →]

Rebecca Krieg, Maryland Department of the Environment (Quad 030)

I work for the Tidal Wetlands Division at the Maryland Department of the Environment. Per the direction of Rick Ayella, my supervisor, I’m contacting you to let you know that SAV was recently discovered in a location whereas SAV is not indicated on the VIMS online maps. [...]

[Read more →]

Lee Karrh, MD-DNR (Quad 003)
We went out to the monster bed yesterday, towards the afternoon low tide.  We were doing a 3 hour tour for students attending the Aquatic Plant Management Society meeting in Baltimore.  So we didn’t have a lot of time.  Some general impressions.
The water was fairly turbid, I couldn’t see bottom in [...]

[Read more →]

by David Malmquist |April 21, 2011
An annual aerial survey led by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that underwater grasses covered 79,675 acres of  Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers in 2010, a decrease of 6,239 acres from the previous year. This year’s values represent about 43 percent of the 185,000-acre [...]

[Read more →]

SAV Friends and Neighbors:
The 2010 SAV monitoring is just about complete as we have flown all the major lower salinity and tidal fresh water areas with SAV over the last month and a half. The lack of rain (well, just up to this week that is!) and some great weather in early September proved [...]

[Read more →]

by David Malmquist | July 28, 2010
Nutrient inputs, especially nitrogen, remain primary challenge
A major new study comparing water quality and coverage of underwater grasses throughout Chesapeake Bay from 1984 to 2006 shows a clear link between the abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and levels of nitrogen in Bay waters. When nitrogen levels rise, [...]

[Read more →]

Debbie Hinkle, UMCES (Quad 044)
Irish Creek at Lucy Pt. :on June 25 the bed is smaller than in 2007 & 2008.  Had vegetative Ruppia and S. pectinata.   Was upright and S. pectinata at surface.  Densest part was more west than previous years towards the Irish Creek Channel.   GPS points that I estimated for the edges [...]

[Read more →]