The Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL), a research and
education facility of the University of Maryland System, will
host our exploration of the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland
Tidewater. CBL is ideally located in Solomons, Md., at the mouth
of the Patuxent River. The area, currently a mecca for the
yachting community, has a long history as a community of
watermen who earned their livelihood by harvesting the bounty of
the Bay. Scientists at CBL play a crucial role in providing the
scientific information necessary for the development of informed
management policies regarding the Bay and its fisheries. The
laboratory is at the technological forefront of real-time water
quality analysis. Its fishery scientists are investigating the
Bay's productivity and trophic structure, while its geochemists
study the cycling, loss and accumulation of materials in the Bay
sediments. CBL is also the home of the Maryland Institute for
Ecological Economics, a leader in the arena of natural resource
economics and public policy.