Bay Facts

There have been 10 U.S. presidents from the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan and Joe Biden.

The Susquehanna River is the Bay’s largest tributary, and contributes about half of the Bay’s freshwater (about 19 million gallons per minute).

Eighty-six percent of watershed residents believe if people work together, water pollution can be fixed.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed has 150 major rivers and streams, but contains more than 100,000 smaller tributaries.

The Susquehanna River watershed includes nearly 50 thousand miles of rivers, streams and creeks.

There are 6,282,718 acres of accessible green space within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The widest point of the Chesapeake Bay measures 35 miles, and is located near the mouth of the Potomac River.

Blue crabs have a rapid growth rate and short life span. Few blue crabs live longer than three years.

More than 1,800 vessels have met their end in Bay waters, lying broken and battered on the Bay's floor.

Legislation proposed by Maryland’s Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative John Sarbanes to incorporate the bay into the nation’s park system.

The narrowest point of the Chesapeake Bay measures 3.4 miles, and is located near Aberdeen, Maryland.

The Chesapeake Bay is home to 26 different species of submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV), including freshwater plants, estuarine plants, redhead grass, and marine species.

There are twelve known species of shark that have been sighted in the Chesapeake Bay, with only five considered a common occurrence—smooth dogfish, sand tiger shark, sandbar shark, spiny dogfish, and bull shark.

There are nearly 1,800 local governments in the Bay watershed, including towns, cities, counties and townships.

The word Chesepiooc is an Algonquian word referring to a village "at a big river." In 2005, Algonquian historian Blair Rudes helped dispel the widely-held belief that the name meant “great shellfish bay.”

Healthy forests can capture more than 85% of the nitrogen that falls onto them from the air.

At 4,863 feet above sea level, Spruce Knob is the highest point in the Chesapeake watershed.

Water temperatures in the Bay fluctuate widely throughout the year, dropping as low as 34 degrees in winter.

There were many different tribes in the region before Europeans arrived, but the dominant group were Algonquian speakers known collectively as the Powhatan tribes.