An April 14 DelmarvaNow.com article reported on the passage of legislation (HB 118) that would create a task force to study acidification in the Chesapeake Bay and other Maryland Waters over the 2014 interim. The task force must make recommendations on how to deal with the issue by January 1, 2015. The bill was sponsored by Delegate Eric Luedtke.
Luedtke hopes the task force will allow the state to begin developing policies to address potential issues related to acidification.
“The state’s been putting millions into oyster restoration, so it doesn’t make sense to do that and not look into this issue,” Luedtke said. “We need to start figuring out how we can best help watermen adapt.”
Some watermen said they were skeptical that the task force would help stave off acidification in the bay.
“There’s nothing a group of politicians comes up with that’s going to end up helping us out. That’s just the way it goes,” Tim Devine, owner of Barren Island Oysters in Hoopers Island, said in February. “By the time it gets agreed upon, it doesn’t do anything.”
The article also noted that Governor Martin O’Malley has not yet formally indicated whether he would sign the bill although a representative from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources predicted he Governor would sign.
