Blog for the Bay

My very first episode of Capital Cooking started with the question, "What is D.C. Cuisine?" Many people answered, "Seafood or Crabs." I had never enjoyed a crab feast before moving to D.C. I've enjoyed my share of crab legs in the Midwest, but never blue crabs. My first experience eating blue crabs was at my condo building's social party crab feast in the summer of 2007. They brought in buckets of crabs for us to crack open. Eating blue crabs is a lot more work than eating crab legs and you don't get as much meat out of them, but it is a fun experience none the less. I went to another crab feast last summer on the Eastern Shore and enjoyed more blue crabs.

* The estimated population of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay has plummeted to 260 million in 2007 from 791 million in 1990.

* More than 4,400 jobs in Virginia and Maryland related to catching, packing and selling crabs have been lost between 1998 and 2006, a 40 percent dive costing the economy about $640 million.

* "Dead zones" that occur in the Bay each summer kill about 75,000 tons of bottom-dwelling clams, worms and other tiny aquatic life, or enough food to support some 60 million crabs.

* The EPA has admitted it will "miss" its 2010 deadline to remove the Bay from the national "dirty waters" list.

TAKE ACTION: Sign the Chesapeake Bay Foundation petition to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson urging the EPA to stop delaying Bay clean-up action: http://is.gd/tvht

* For more information, read the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's "State of the Bay" report: http://www.cbf.org/sotb2008

* Want to do more? Attend a GREEN DRINKS FOR THE BAY event Wednesday evening in one of 16 locations around the Bay: http://www.greendrinksforthebay.org/

* And become a fan of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chesapeake-Bay-Foundation/8914040942.

Thank you to hosts FoodieTots (http://foodietots.com) and The Arugula Files (http://arugulafiles.typepad.com).