History

Maryland Coastal Bays Program

government · active attested 1999–2017

Also known as Coastal Bays Program

The estuary programme for the bays behind Ocean City, named in the town's 1999 All-America City application among the partnerships it was proudest of. Its Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee is the body from which Spencer Rowe argued the town's case against the Atlantic Coastal Bays Protection Act in February 2002 — describing how he had forced a correction out of the Baltimore Sun over submerged aquatic vegetation in the Isle of Wight Bay, and listing the two largest tidal wetland creation projects in Maryland as having happened in the coastal bays.

In the record (1)

  1. 1999 · 1999-01-12

    A council hearing on hydraulic clam dredging heard that Ocean City had no sea-grass beds before 1991 and now had beds a thousand feet wide, and a councilman called the coastal bays "our little pond in the back yard and it's fished out"

    For the work session of 12 January 1999 the council invited Dr Donald Boesch of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, DNR biologists, the National Park Service and the Natural Resources Police, "precipitated", President Meehan said, by "the continual fishing and dredging in the bay ... year round". Boesch: "in 1990 and before, as best we have records, you didn't have grass beds here along Ocean City ... they've only begun to return since 1991 and ... every year we see a slight expansion of those grass beds." Aerial photographs showed scarring in the beds from boat propellers and clam dredges; DNR's Lee Carr said the bed off the convention centre ran "over 1,000 feet out in some areas", and the Natural Resources Police confirmed dredging was lawful anywhere more than 300 feet from shore - "300 feet is a city block," City Manager Dare put in. Councilman Hall: "This is our little pond in the back yard and it's fished out. There's nothing left in it. We need help." Bill Outten of DNR said the delineation task force had 23 members, "like 6 of 'em are watermen". Mayor Mathias closed by rejecting "closure, banning, prohibiting" in favour of "a balanced program", and County Commission president Jeanne Lynch, in the audience, said the county would take the same subject up the following Tuesday.

    James N. "Jim" Mathias Jr.Rick MeehanDennis W. Dare

    Source · checked 2026-09-10