THE STEWARDSHIP OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY 
FISHERY RESOURCES 
by 
Drs. Cluney M. Stagg and Brian J. Rothschild 
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory 
Stewardship means exercising responsible care of entrusted 
possessions. In the case that we are considering this after¬ 
noon, the fishery resources of the Chesapeake Bay are the en¬ 
trusted possessions. The central questions that we will address 
are these: Who is taking care of Chesapeake Bay's fishery re¬ 
sources, and how can this task best be accomplished? 
This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with how much 
money we spend on study or cleaning up the Bay. It has nothing 
to do with the number of conferences we have or media events. 
What it really has to do with is how we think about the re¬ 
source, how we think about taking care of the resource, and the 
degree to which existing institutions lend themselves to the 
task of protecting the resource in a cost-effective manner. 
Often the way we think about Chesapeake Bay and its re¬ 
sources is wrong-headed and frequently the cost-effectiveness of 
the way that we develop information on the resources is not 
efficient. With this as a point of departure, how can we hope 
to modify old institutions or create new institutions with new 
capabilities to do a better job of stewardship? 
Let us look at the way we think about the problem, parti¬ 
cularly from the perspective of how the process is portrayed to 
the public. It is amazing how the ordinarily clear thinking of 
public officials and scientists appears at times to be so 
facilely translated by the media. A recent newspaper article 
made the following assertions: 
"But a year after initiating a massive restoration effort, 
the governors, senators and cabinet officials were more 
optimistic about the health of the estuary." 
"We're getting on top of the problem; we're beginning to 
identify what's wrong with the Bay." 
"We're really at a point where we hope to see positive 
progress." 
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