Word: watermen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Star's audience has also grown more diverse, ranging from federal employees who commute the 50 miles to Washington to the watermen who fish the Chesapeake Bay. What those residents have in common is a need to know what is going on in their immediate world, and from Monday through Saturday (there is no Sunday edition) the Star meets that need as completely as any paper can. The front page features at least two local stories a day, while one of the paper's four sections is devoted entirely to area news (the other three: general news, sports, and life...
...almost overwhelming natural abundance. Geese, black ducks, mallard, teal and widgeon have darkened the skies over the bay and fattened themselves in its marshes. Striped bass, shad and herring spawn in its shallow bays. Oysters, clams and the succulent Atlantic blue crab provide the bay's hardy watermen with a livelihood and gourmets with seafood delights...
...this bounty and the bay itself are now threatened. Watermen have been saying for years that the Chesapeake is dying. Now others are confirming their complaint. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after making a $28 million six-year study, concluded in 1983 that the Chesapeake is clearly an ecosystem in decline. Says Maryland Governor Harry Hughes: "Time is running out for the Chesapeake. If we do not take action to save the bay, there may be no point in taking it tomorrow; it may be too late...
...that declining catches are forcing him and his fellow fishermen out of business. As Tilghman Islander William Roulette points out, "We all must work part-time ashore." The Chesapeake fleet of skipjacks, sail-driven oyster dredges, has dropped from more than 100 boats to 30; the number of working watermen has shrunk from 7,500 in the '50s to about...
Maryland Governor Hughes acknowledges that getting the necessary cooperation from private citizens may also prove to be difficult. Industrial firms and other property owners have traditionally resisted attempts by state or local authorities to tell them how they can use their land. Maryland's watermen have always opposed efforts to make them curb their catches, although a growing number of them now grudgingly concede that more controlled harvesting is necessary...