Coastal
Facts
- Maryland's coastal zone includes 16 counties and Baltimore City,
encompasses two-thirds of the State's land and is home to 67.83% of its
residents
- Maryland has 4,360 miles of coastline along the Chesapeake Bay,
Coastal Bays and Atlantic Ocean.
- The
Chesapeake Bay is North America's largest and most biologically diverse
estuary
- More
than 3,600 species of plants, fish and animals live in the Chesapeake
Bay
- Over
300 species of migratory waterfowl, songbirds and birds of prey seek the
shallow coastal bays for food and shelter
- An
additional 3 million people are expected to move the Chesapeake Bay
watershed by 2020
- Nearly 95% of the land in Maryland drains to the Chesapeake
Bay
- Prior
to the late 1800s, oysters were so abundant in the Chesapeake Bay that
some oyster reefs posed navigational hazards to boats
- The
Chesapeake Bay is shallow. A six foot tall person could wade over
700,000 acres of the Bay without becoming completely submerged
- Sea
level is rising in Maryland at a rate of approximately 1 foot per
century, twice the national average due to land subsidence.
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