Chesapeake Bay Human Interaction

Industrial farming and fishing are disrupting the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. Industrial farming is dumping large amounts of waste which contains phosphorus into rivers and tributaries which lead to the estuary, the Chesapeake Bay. The phosphorus is then consumed by the small amount of algae, cholorphyta, in the bay. The small amount of cholorphyta increase due to large amounts of phosphorus entering the estuary. These algal blooms indirectly increase the amount of microbes in the Bay. These microbes use up oxygen and other resources needed by marine life like fish. The result is populations of fish and other marine life rapidly decline due to decreases in Bay resources (such as oxygen and sea floor plants).