Stuff that is harmful to the Bay!
There are many things that can harm our Bay! Click on the words below to learn more:
Bacterial: Leaking Pipe
Bacterial pollution is manly caused from problems and leakages in sewage treatment plants. Bacterial pollution will make animals sick.
Chemicals
Chemical pollution is caused when paint, antifreeze, gas, oil, and other things that contain chemicals are not properly disposed of. These chemicals also enter the waterways as run-off when they are washed off of roads, sidewalks, and parking lots. Chemical pollution, similar to bacterial pollution, will poison and kill animals and make our drinking water unhealthy.
Dead Zone
Dead zones are caused be sediment pollution or algae blooms (caused by nutrient pollution). When sediment or algae blocks the sunlight, the bay grasses die because they need sunlight to survive. Many animals that live the Bay use bay grasses as a hiding place, nursing place, or food. To make matters even worse, when the algae die, they get decomposed by bacteria, removing oxygen in the water, forcing animals to die or leave. Dead zones are parts of the Bay where aquatic plants and animals cannot live.
Mute Swan
Mute swans are invasive to North America. Invasive means they are not supposed be there and there are too many of them. Mute swans are native to Europe and Asia. Native means they are supposed to be there.
Mute swans first came to the bay region in 1962 when five mute swans escaped from someone's land in Talbot County, Maryland. The mute swan eats bay grass such as eelgrass or widgeon grass, pulling the whole plant including their roots. Adults eat more then eight pounds of bay grass every day. They feed by submerging their head and neck underwater, sometimes "tipping up" their tail in the process. During the winter, they will also eat wheat and other grains from farm fields. The reason that they are harmful to the Bay is because that fish lay their eggs near the grass and if there were no grass then the fish will have to lay them in the open and other things would eat the eggs. The mute swan can grow up to be 5 feet long with wingspan is 7 to 8 feet and weigh up to 25 pounds. It's so big it doesn't have any natural predators when it's a full grown adult.
Nutria
Nutria eat roots and young shoots of native marsh plants. This means less food for native animals and less places for fish and crabs to lay their eggs. There are also no predators large enough to eat the nutria as we have hunted all the wolves and mountain lions in the area
Nutrient Pollution
Nutrient pollution mainly comes from run-off from fertilizer and will cause algae blooms that will cause dead zones!
Sediment
Sediment pollution is mainly caused by soil erosion when the soil is left bare. Sediment pollution, like algae blooms, will block the sun which is vital for the bay grasses survival. Many animals depend on the bay grasses for survival, and therefore move away or die, resulting in a dead zone!
Snakehead
The Northern Snakehead is an invasive fish. Invasive means it's not supposed to be there. The snakeheads are being sold in live food markets and people take them home and think that if they put them in a lake then they can make babies and they can get more. But they escaped and went to local streams. The snakehead is native to China,Russia and Korea.
The snakeheads unfortunately like to eat native fish, frogs ,crustaceans, and small birds. The snakehead can come out of the water for four days.
The snakehead is bad for the environment because the snakehead goes to one lake and eats all the fish then goes to another lake and eats all the fish. They do not have any native predators.