A Fishing Trip: Exploiting and Managing the Commons of the Chesapeake Bay

Abstract

Captain John Smith and his band of English colonists arrived at the Chesapeake Bay in 1607, discovering an estuary little changed by human activity. This contrasted sharply with the European rivers of that era. The estuaries he knew from England and Europe all suffered from dam-building, overfishing, sedimentation, and pollution. The decedents of the original colonizers, and the many thousands that came subsequently reshaped the Bay by their exploitation of its food resources. Over harvesting, damming of waterways, and oyster reef destruction decimated oysters (Crassostrea virginica) and migratory species of finfish, including; shad (Alosa sapidissima), alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) and striped bass (Morone saxatilis). In the twentieth century, application of scientific fisheries methods built around the concept of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and habitat restoration has yielded only partial recovery of these and other species. Ecosystem based management (EBM) is discussed as a sustainable alternative to MSY that takes into account non-human consumers of the exploited resource. The chapter also reviews the various fishing techniques used on the Bay, including those invented by Native Americans and later methods that facilitated industrial scale harvesting.