PROBLEM: The Chesapeake Bay is dying more rapidly than previously assumed. A combination of industrial pollution, human and animal waste, and agricultural pesticides has resulted in seasonal algae blooms that deplete the Bays oxygen reserves and create vast dead zones incapable of supporting plant or animal life. As a result, the continued existence of the Maryland Blue Crab is in jeopardy.
PROPOSAL: This project seeks to divert rising water levels into low lying farmland adjacent to the Bay by sluicing tidal waters such they join with existing farm irrigation ponds in a network that could be used for crab farming. This effort could accomplish three goals simultaneously: 1) mitigating pesticide runoff by converting arable farmland into crab ponds, 2) preserving local strains of Maryland Blue Crab as a foodstuff and a wild species, 3) repopulating the overall bay ecosystem by releasing all adult females for spawning. This project assumes low-tech approach wherein a limited investment of infrastructure could result in a profitable enterprise within a few years.
PROGRAM: The project is envisioned as a self-sustaining, zero-net-impact initiative. As such, the facility will: A) treat its own effluent prior to evacuation in the Bay, B) feed the livestock with the organic matter debris generated in the processing/packaging facility (the Blue Crab is a cannibalistic species, and is thus uniquely suited to this type of feedback loop). The project will consist of the ponds, a pump facility, a processing/packaging facility, docks for trucking, and fair-wage-housing for the seasonal employees that work the ponds.