211 



V. OTHER MARINE ECOSYSTEMS IM DECLINE 



The Bering Sea is perhaps the most pressing example of a 

 marine ecosystem currently in decline. Unfortunately, it is 

 not the only example. The Gulf of Alaska is the home to 

 numerous species of marine mammals and marine birds whose 

 populations are experiencing declines or whose status remains 

 uncertain. This region now shares many of the problems which 

 are affecting the Bering Sea, and declines in both ecosystems 

 are interrelated since the marine mammals and marine birds 

 inhabit the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. 



On the East Coast, the Chesapeake Bay, considered one of 

 the world's most productive estuaries and home to several 

 marine mammal species, is showing signs of disturbing declines 

 in species such as submerged aquatic grasses, striped bass, 

 shad, oysters, clams, waterfowl and a decrease in the overall 

 Bay water quality. 70 Scientists have also become concerned 

 over the decline in numbers of the once abundant Chesapeake 

 Bay Blue Crab. 71 These contemporaneous, unexplained declines 

 are indicative of an ecosystem-wide injury. 



"Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission, Critical Area and You: The 

 Chesapeake's First Line of Defcnnp 1 (Hugh M. Smith ed. , n.p., n.d.). 



71 D'Vera Cohn, As Crab Y ield Falls. Scientists Claw for Clues . Wash. 

 Post, August 8, 1993 at Al, A18. 



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