Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is a saltwater inlet lying interior from the Atlantic Ocean, and bounded by the mainland of North America to the West, and bounded on the east by the Delmarva Peninsula. The bay is the biggest such body in the United States. In the north, the Chesapeake Bay is bordered by the Maryland State and it is surrounded by the State of Virginia in the south, and the bay is a vital feature of the economy and ecology of the two states, in addition to other states. The bay occupies an area of 166,534 square kilometers (64,299 square miles) as a drainage basin, in which over 150 streams and rivers are flowing. The bay covers parts of six U.S. states, such as New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia, in addition to the District of Columbia.

The length of the Chesapeake Bay is roughly 300 km (200 miles) and it extends from its northern inlet in the Susquehanna River to its channel into the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is 4.5 km (2.8 miles) wide at its slenderest and 50 km (30 miles) at its broadest. The bay has a total length of the seashore, including Branch Rivers of 18,804 km (11,684 miles), embodying a surface area of 11,601 square kilometers (4,479 square miles). The average depth of the bay is 46 feet (14 meters), attaining a maximum depth of 208 feet (63 meters).

The Chesapeake Bay is spanned two times, in the Maryland State through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point close to Annapolis, to Kent Island, and in the Virginia State through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-subway between Virginia Beach and Cape Charles. The bay is recognized for both its loveliness and bounty, and in recent years, it is turning out to be emptier, with a smaller number of oysters, crabs, and watermen.

Origin

The term Chesepiooc is an Algonquian term, mentioning a village "at a huge river." It is the 7th oldest existing English place-name in the United States, first used as "Chesepiook" by travelers moving north from the Roanoke settlement into a Chesapeake branch during 1585 or 1586. In 2005, Blair Rudes, an Algonquian linguist helped to disperse one among the most extensively held beliefs of the area that 'Chesapeake' denotes close to 'Great Shellfish Inlet.'

Ecology

The Chesapeake Bay is an abode to a lot of fauna that either travel to the bay on some occasions during the year or exist there throughout the year. There are in excess of 300 varieties of fish and many crab and shellfish species. Some of these species comprise the Striped bass, Atlantic menhaden, American eel, Blue crab and the Eastern oyster.

Birds that live in the bay include great blue heron, osprey, peregrine falcon, and bald eagle, among which the peregrine falcon and the bald eagle were threatened by dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, and their numbers dropped, but in recent years, their numbers have increased. The piping plover is the next to threaten genus that lives in the wetlands. Many floras as well, have made the Chesapeake Bay their habitat on both land and underwater. Widespread submerged water plants that can be found in the Chesapeake Bay include widgeon grass and eelgrass.