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Approaching Tappahannock from Fredericksburg, development and homes along the water's edge begin to appear.
Chuck Epps (left) and Bill Portlock, with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, keep an eye out for wildlife
A gauge measures pH. In some areas, oxygen levels were so low |
THE bones of the old work boat, a classic Chesapeake Bay deadrise, lie rotting on the shore of the small creek behind Morattico, once a thriving Rappahannock River fishing enclave.
It's a fitting symbol here in the Lancaster County community where stark white condos now rise up on the shoreline where oyster boats used to cruise in by the hundreds.
Feeling the squeeze: the small watermen's shacks. Nearby, pots used for catching hard crabs are
Said a crabber working peeler pots: "Most everyone has taken their hard crab pots out already. There aren't any crabs to catch
Shaking his head in disgust, he added, "Can't get nothing for the ones you catch. And you burn through too much gas money."
The exchange put a somber tone on the second day of a trip last week from Fredericksburg to the Bay.
Two experienced staffers from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and I sought to get a feeling for the river's health.
We knew it would be hard to match the vitality we found last Thursday when we went 70 miles from city dock in Fredericksburg to Tappahannock.
But none of us were quite ready for the glum results we found in our 40-mile trek the following day.
Yes, we saw eagles, though not in the amazing numbers spotted on day one. We also saw a marked increase in osprey and even a gar near the mouth of Totuskey Creek in Richmond County.
But testing revealed oxygen levels in the water got progressively worse as we moved down river. In stretches, it was so low it would be hard for fish and even crabs to live.
We spotted what appeared to be an algae bloom, where nutrients caused algae to grow excessively, giving more than five miles of the river a dark stain.
As we moved, the narrow twists and turns of the upper river were replaced by wide reaches of the Rappahannock, with more pleasure boaters on the water and homes and riprap lining the shores.
The word on the river's health and commerce we got from those we encountered on the trip was decisively downbeat. Including:
The restaurant cook who said in earlier years, he'd employed someone to pick enough meat from locally caught crabs to fill his freezer for the entire year.
This year, the freezer's still empty, and it's been a real effort to find enough crabs for the evening's crab cakes.
A longtime crabber who has had pots out much of his life to supply restaurants and local customers.
For the first time in 40 years, he's done, his pots out of the water.
A marina owner near the mouth of the bay, who in past seasons has had several thousand boaters pay to launch their craft from his ramp. The income helped offset real estate taxes that have tripled in recent years.
This year, he'll be lucky if the number of launches hits 300.
A story that once would have been hard to believe, of a restaurant at Tangier forced by supply and price to import crab meat.
This on the island that was once home to the most thriving crabbing industry in the bay.
As we weaved down stretches of the ever-opening river, we saw just two work boats in water that once would have been full.
CBF Senior Educator Bill Portlock, piloting his small boat not far past Morattico, recalled coming to a thriving oyster bed there in the early '80s to buy a supply of the tasty bivalves for a party after his wedding.
"There were 50 or 60 hand tongers out here working," he said. "I bought five bushels and paid $12 per bushel."
CBF staffer Chuck Epes, taking a sample of water from the algae bloom, said scientists believe that algae blooms aren't new to the river.
"But over the years we've lost some of the things that helped limit those conditions," said Epes, noting the loss of riparian buffers, shore and underwater grasses, as well as marshlands and oyster beds important in filtering water.
Despite the mixed news, when we finished our trip by pulling into a marina at Greys Point, it was hard not to be impressed with the river that began as a peaceful sliver and ended as a roiling, powerful waterway.
Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com
This is the second of two articles looking at the health of the Rappahannock River. |
