I spent a day this week with three other men and a waterman, Capt. John Van Alstine, out on his Hooper’s Island style workboat tonging for oysters and trotlining for crabs. Even though the crabs and oyster were not abundant, it was a great way to spend a day out of the office.

Halfway through the day, one of my landlubber colleagues, Mark, asked me, “Why do we continue to spend so much money on trying to save the Chesapeake Bay? Isn’t its decline just a natural result of population growth and progress?” (more…)