“A rising tide lifts all boats,” as the saying goes. But local marinas are hoping the lifting of COVID-19 related boating restrictions on May 5 will result in a rising economic tide.
There is little doubt that marine-based businesses suffered considerably since the ban on recreational boating and sailing imposed by Governor Larry Hogan and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources on March 23.
Fortunately, there is pent up demand among boaters to get back out on the water according to Atlantic Marina at Ferry Point employee Adrian Meredith.”
“It all broke loose on the Magothy on Mother’s Day weekend. We’re really happy about it,” she said.
Lindsey Smith, from family-owned Smith’s Marina on the Severn River at Crownsville, noted that it took a day or two for boating traffic to build because of windy conditions. However, there were lots of boats on the water on Mother’s Day.
Since being established in 1936 by Alonzo Smith, the historic marina only rarely experienced down times. Like other boatyards, they breathed a sigh of relief when the governor’s ban was lifted.
“As soon as people got the word that they were allowed back out, we had folks down here cleaning their boats, making sure their batteries were charged and other things,” Lindsey said.
On the Severn River’s North Shore, James and Kathy Galli, owners of Severna Park Yacht Basin and affiliated repair facility Absolute Marine Services, were more than pleased to see boaters back in action.
“Boating traffic on the Severn has absolutely picked up and we’re happy,” said Kathy. “When the boating ban was lifted the other day, everybody was like ‘I want my boat, I want my boat.’ Obviously, it will take time to get everyone’s boat unwrapped and back in the water, repaired, commissioned or whatever.”
She added that many people were just not doing anything with their boats and really had no contact with them because they didn’t know about their jobs or just where things were going. Understandably, owners have been cautious about actually putting their boats in the water.
The governor’s Stay At Home order posed a severe hardship on the business because the Galli’s needed “to pay their guys to stay home”. They seriously worried that, if the order lasted much longer, they’d have to close their doors.
Luckily, many people were determined to get back on the water.
“So much boat traffic went out of here on Mother’s Day that it was amazing,” Kathy said.
Clear waters ahead?
Though unable to appear before their memberships, as usual, both the Magothy River Association (MRA)and the Severn River Association (SRA) released their State of the River reports for 2019 online.
Both reports highlighted “clearer than usual waters”, thanks, in part, to the presence of filter feeding “Dark False Mussels” and an abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) that also filters water.
MRA’s State of the River Report showed some encouraging progress. According to president Paul Spadaro, aerial surveillance from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science showed 183.4 acres of submerged aquatic grasses including redhead and milfoil throughout the watershed.
Spadaro attributes the increase in grasses over the last two years to the Dark False Mussels which thrived in fresh water in the river from extended rainfalls. The mussels filter algae and sediments from the water column, resulting in greater clarity and allowing beneficial sunlight to penetrate the depths. Once the aquatic grasses become established, they pump oxygen into their roots, thereby oxygenating sediments and releasing oxygen into the water.
The Magothy River Index, compiled annually by volunteers, registered 43, equating to a C, and higher than the organization has seen in ten years.
Creeks along the Magothy that improved from 2018 included Old Man, North Cypress, Cypress, Dividing, Mill, and the Little Magothy.
The success of the joint MRA, Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards and Berrywood community’s project to restore the headwaters at Cattail Creek was also highlighted.
“The cleanup along the banks and restoration of the stream bed was such a success that Berrywood residents are treating it like a beach,” Spadaro said.
Berrywood resident and MRA member Bob Royer agreed and said it was wonderful to see children once again playing along the creek banks as they’d done in earlier years.
The only jarring note has been the spotting and subsequent netting of a Snakehead fish in Cattail Creek by Dave LaChapelle. It is suspected that a significant number of Yellow Perch egg sacs fell prey to a Snakehead.
Severn River Association’s State of the River Report was presented “virtually” by executive director Thomas Guay to 63 members via a Zoom meeting at 7 pm on April 21. Guay announced that there was good news for swimmers in 2019 with great clarity in the water in the main stem of the river. All beaches along the main stem passed the EPA swimming test 100 percent of the time. They were scored by Operation Clearwater and Anne Arundel County as Green Beaches, meaning testing showed they were under the 104 cfu bacteria count that EPA considers safe.
The Severn River saw an absolute “explosion” of underwater grasses…..more sub-aquatic vegetation than SRA has seen in 20 years – as much as 250 acres. The underwater grasses provide habitat and food for fish, crabs and wildlife and erosion protection for shorelines.
According to Guay, SRA’s volunteer SAV Navy identified abundant Horned Pondweed in spring and Widgeon, Redhead and Sago Pondweed in summer along with non-native, Eurasian Milfoil. They were elated because more SAV meant more crabs and fish.
SRA created a river-wide, 41-station water quality monitoring program. during 2019 with a team of volunteers recording some excellent clarity readings. Mid-river monitoring stations received the best grades of B and B- for clarity with many readings better than 1 meter in the main stem. Little Round Bay scored the best with 2.36 meters.
Sadly, most of the creeks scored poorly, receiving a C, C- and even some D grades due to the influence of storrmwater runoff from impervious surfaces.
In spite of plentiful underwater grasses, the river did suffer from an extended dead zone of low oxygen conditions that lasted most of the summer. The dead zone, that inhabited the bottom half of the water column, grew to be about five square miles in size
SRA’s best news was that its oysters survived two years of low salinity. Though low salinity conditions stunted the growth of oysters raised and planted in 2018 by SRA’s oyster growers team, they survived.
“Our hope is that they start growing again in 2020 now that salinity has returned to normal levels.” Guay said.
SRA is also working with marinas and other groups to restart the local economy and lift restrictions on recreational boating so we can all appreciate the values of clean water in our waterways. The organization is also promoting Anne Arundel County’s Responsible Boating Initiative to preserve the river’s great swimming conditions by encouraging boaters to use holding tanks and pump-up facilities
Graduation news
On April 28, Anne Arundel County Public Schools Superintendent George Arlotto announced the cancellation of all high school proms. Graduations were not cancelled at that time but Arlotto said most high school administrators were busy planning various ways to host virtual versions of Senior Awards Nights and similar events to honor soon-to-be graduates. I’ve been unable to ascertain if Severna Park High School’s graduation – originally planned for May 28 at the Event Center at UMBC in Catonsville – will now have a virtual graduation component.
Severn School’s graduation will take place Friday, May 29 at 5:00 pm on the Alumni House Lawn (In the event of inclement weather, graduation will be held in St. John Athletic Center). The ceremony lasts approximately two hours. For information see https://www.severnschool.com.
