Susquehanna Flats Show Hope for Chesapeake Bay

"There weren't any keepers yet, but the fish were definitely biting for Willie Edwards one day last week as he trolled along the edge of the Susquehanna Flats. The 72-year-old fisherman from North East said he'd caught 'a lot of little rock,' or striped bass.

The Flats — a vast, grass-covered shoal at the mouth of the Susquehanna River — are a magnet for fish and the anglers who pursue them. But they're also a symbol to scientists of the Chesapeake Bay's resilience, and of its ability to rebound, if given a chance, from decades of pollution and periodic battering by storms.

'This part of the bay is healthy, at least,' said Cassie Gurbisz, a graduate research assistant with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, as she stood waist-deep in the water to get a closer look at the grasses carpeting the bottom. 'Underwater plants could be considered sentinels of environmental quality,' she added, because they can only grow in relatively clear, unpolluted water."

Timothy B. Wheeler reports for the Baltimore Sun September 1, 2014.