This blog post is the first of a two-post series examining cownose ray (Rhinoptera bonasus) history and ecology in the Chesapeake Bay. In 2007, an article appeared in the reputable scientific journal Science asserting that declines in large shark populations along the eastern coast of the United States had led to an “explosion” of rays and skates due to lack of predation.

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View of Downtown Seattle from the waterfront. Photo credit: Yesenia Valverde. Last month, the IPCC released its special report, Global Warming of 1.5°C , a report requested by the Paris Agreement to detail the projected impacts of a 1.5°C rise in global temperature. It is of crucial importance to note that, according to the report, we as a global society are not currently on track to maintain warming below 1.5°C. Sobering, the report is an immediate call to action.

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The UMCES Environmental Summit. Photo credit: UMCES Flickr. On November 30, 2018 the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) community gathered at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) in Baltimore to discuss environmental science and application to resource management and policy with our new president, Dr. Peter Goodwin.

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The Integration and Application Network (IAN) had an eventful and exciting year. We were able to report some really good news in the improvements in the health of Chesapeake Bay and Maryland Coastal Bays with our annual report cards. In addition, the publication of a scientific synthesis paper that IAN staff helped generate was able to reach a broad audience. This paper identified that the nutrient reductions into Chesapeake Bay were leading to ecosystem health improvements.

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Kristin Saunders, a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science at the Chesapeake Bay Program (UMCES@CBP) employee, organizes regular mini-retreats for the Goal Implementation Team chairs and Chesapeake Bay Program leadership. The Goal Implementation Team chairs included Sean Corson (Sustainable Fisheries), Christine Conn (Habitat), James Davis-Martin (Water Quality), Chuck Hunt (Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship), and Dave Goshorn (Enhance Partnering, Leadership and Management).

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On 27-28 Nov 2018, Andrew Elmore, Alex Fries and I traveled to Sandusky, Ohio for the kick-off workshop for our Western Lake Erie and watershed report card project. We experienced some wonderful Ohio hospitality and had a productive workshop. This was the culmination of a project that I introduced in a previous blog about Lake Erie.

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Last November 5-8, 2018, I was fortunate to have attended and presented at the 12th International Conference on the Environmental Management of the Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS 12) held at the Jomtien Palm Beach Resort in Thailand. EMECS 12 was hosted by the International EMECS Center and co-hosted by the Royal Society of Thailand, several leading Thai Universities, and the UNESCO-IOC/WESTPAC.

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The Global Environment Facility (GEF) hosts a biennial International Waters Conference (IWC9 this year), which focuses on international water issues. Sarah Davidson and I were invited to the conference to talk about how ecosystem health report cards could support transboundary water assessments. This year the meeting was held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 5-8 November.

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Dice clatter on a plain table in a quiet room. The truncated, cacophonous collision of plastic and faux wood laminate foretells the destiny of a densely populated urban area. The game master considers the exposed numbers reflected in the light of a computer screen before inputting the next fated event: Power station 3, grid section 6 fails. Pump 617 offline.

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Jamie Currie and I had an exciting meeting with experts on Texas coastal water quality, birds, seagrass, oysters, and fisheries on November 1 and 2 to create the first Texas Coast Ecosystem Health Report Card. We met at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies in Corpus Christi, Texas, which was a great venue for the meeting.

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