Report: Chesapeake Bay health trending upward for first time

CAMBRIDGE, Md. – The health of the entire Chesapeake Bay is showing unprecedented signs of improvement as undersea grasses spread and the blue crab population increases.

The University of Maryland said Friday that the bay’s overall condition is trending upward for the first time since the school began issuing report cards on bay health 12 years ago.

The university’s Center for Environmental Science gave the nation’s largest estuary an overall C grade for 2017, the same grade it has received each year since 2015. But researchers see significantly improving trends in several regions — proof, they say, that efforts to reduce pollution by states in the watershed are working.

In particular, the report card shows aquatic grasses returning, to the largest extent ever recorded.