Fish Mortality Caused by a Series of Heavy Explosions in Chesapeake Bay

Abstract

During the late spring and summer of 1948, the Bureau of Ships, Department of the Navy, conducted a series of underwater explosive tests off Barren Island in Chesapeake Bay. Because of previous fish mortalities in the Bay caused by numerous military operations over the past decade, considerable public resentment over the proposed tests was expressed in the press and among commercial fishermen and sportsmen groups. As a result of these protests, both the Maryland Department of Research and Education and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service were requested by the Navy to send ob-