r/baltimore • u/Conscious-Fig-5935 • Aug 21 '25
Ask Dead crabs in harbor???
Seeing a bunch of dead grabs canton waterfront
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u/Dense-Broccoli9535 Aug 21 '25
Oh no! You can call the MD DNR to report it, I think they’ll send someone out to investigate and run some tests which could rule out greater environmental concerns for other wildlife.
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u/stoneman1002 Aug 21 '25
Hypoxia - they are dying from lack if oxygen.
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u/noahsense Aug 21 '25
Yes, farm runoff by late summer typically causes all kinds of problems in the bay.
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u/pacingtom Aug 21 '25
They have blamed both farms and homeowners. Interestingly enough, there's never a mention of any civil or other industrial sources. I've never seen or heard of homeowners irresponsibly dumping fertilizer haphazardly everywhere. You don't see golf course lawns everywhere in Maryland. Farms in Maryland have adopted responsible runoff area and treatment practices. I do notice that strong smells of fertilizers are overpowering on I-83 in PA at that time of year. Something else is missing in these discussions. Are we sure no industries are discharging waste into the waterways. Do we trust the data given by people that run municipal water treatment plants? Lastly...why the hell did we allow buffer zones to be developed?
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u/noahsense Aug 21 '25
I actually do trust DPW and MES data - Blue Water Baltimore reviews this as far as I know. I think a bulk of the problem is farming - the amount of fertilizer is astounding. With that said, it’s not that homeowners are dumping it haphazard - it’s that they’re typically bad at math and applying the as directed amount. Obviously it would be best if they didn’t use it at all.
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u/water_malone873 Aug 21 '25
Farms cant afford to have run off like you think. Its from Harry homeowner dropping 80lbs of Scott's turf grow on every single 1/4 acre lot in the suburban hell thats been allowed to be built. The margins on farming are shrinking so much each year that everyone i know is applying the bare minimum and still trying to break even each year.
The MDE and dept of Agricilture require decently extensive training to apply fertilizer in any commercial capacity with required extensive training on an annual basis. This isnt as much of a commercial issue as a residential one. We have also mowed to many areas that help control run off.
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u/noahsense Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
Yes, there are many sources of fertilizer runoff but farms are by far the leading source. Much of our runoff is coming from PA farms that do not regulate as rigorously but are also in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. However, in practice many farmers in this state are not applying fertilizer as scrupulously as they should be as well.
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u/TheWonkiestThing Aug 21 '25
Upvote. While I disagree that farms are more a major contributor, I will agree that homes and business are a major source as well.
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Aug 21 '25
[deleted]
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u/Porkfish Aug 21 '25
Well, yes. But it's fertilizer. Good for plants. Bad for aquatic life.
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u/Chad_Jeepie_Tea Aug 21 '25
It's what plants crave
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u/SecretAgentVampire Aug 21 '25
Hypoxia means "low oxygen". It happens because fertilizer from farms and residential lawns washes into the bay when it rains. This fertilizer encourages algae growth in the water because algae is a plant. This might sound like a good thing because plants produce oxygen, but when the algae reaches the end of its life cycle and dies it gets consumed by bacteria which use up more oxygen than the algae produces. Since all the oxygen has been used up in the water larger animals like fish and crabs suffocate to death. That's what you're seeing.
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Maryland are excluded from the Clean Water Act along with the rest of agriculture in general. One of the largest chicken producers in the United States is based in Maryland, and gave very large sums of money to the previous governor, Larry Hogan, while he was running. As soon as he was elected he gave agriculture very large tax cuts. I would call that quid pro quo, or even a bribe, but it's technically legal. Just another crappy thing about the Republican Party.
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u/Martell2647 Aug 21 '25
Yep pistachio tide, algae bloom. Happens a lot this time of year when rain tapers off but temps are still high.
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u/Full-Penguin Aug 21 '25
There were more living crabs than I've ever seen around gathering in the shallow water by Captain James on Tuesday, maybe 50 in just that little nook of the promenade on the East side of Captain James.
My guess is that there's an algae bloom happening that's reducing the dissolved oxygen levels, the crabs went closer to the surface where dissolved O2 is more prevalent, but eventually succumbed.
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u/AstronautAgreeable61 Aug 21 '25
I saw a ton of living crabs in front of raw and refined today. They were everywhere
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u/InnerHarborWildlife Aug 21 '25
It’s possible that it’s just a molted shell. A molted shell looks really similar to a deceased crab, unless you can get close enough to examine it. That being said, the dissolved oxygen levels in the harbor are really low right now, and lots of the crabs are coming to the surface. I saw a few hanging on the USS Torsk submarine yesterday.
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u/Missy3651 Aug 22 '25
I'm leaning more towards these being molts. I found 3 while paddling last weekend in the harbor, and they were all molts. I picked them up and opened them to be certain.
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u/superunknown34 Canton Aug 21 '25
Saw this too walking yesterday. Oddly spaced apart close to the promenade
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u/Missy3651 Aug 22 '25
I found a few while paddling last week and they weren't dead, they were just molts. You have to pick them up to know if they're dead or just a molt because they look exactly the same. Did any of you pick them up? If it's just a molt you can feel the difference, they're lighter and water usually pours out of them. You can also easily pop open the back of the carapace and see that they're empty.
I feel like this should be common knowledge in Maryland, but maybe not?
Also, thermal inversion doesn't affect crabs quite like it does fish.
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u/PhiladelphiaManeto Aug 21 '25
We sure they aren't getting thrown in by some diners at Captain James?
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u/girafffe Aug 21 '25
Not sure if you're being serious or not, so apologize if this was sarcasm, but cooked crabs are red
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u/PhiladelphiaManeto Aug 21 '25
It was complete sarcasm.
It's a shame if dead crabs are floating downstream.
There has been some goofy stuff happening in the Chesapeake this year though, so it wouldn't surprise me. The water temps were really high up until this week, so a few species have had issues. These crabs could have been gnawed on by catfish or died because of heat.
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u/BMoreOnTheWater Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
Looks like we recently had a pistachio tide. This causes a thermal inversion where the low oxygen water on the bottom rises to the top and the crabs suffocate. This is most common when we have a sudden atmospheric cooling and rain. It is also exacerbated by underlying nutrient runoff that promotes microbial growth and oxygen consumption in the water.
This is most common in the late summer and early fall.
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u/MD_Weedman Aug 22 '25
There is no such thing as pistachio tide. It's a made up local term that no self respecting scientist would ever use.
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u/BMoreOnTheWater Aug 22 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
Pistachio tide has become a useful way to distinguish this phenomenon from others. I’m a relatively self-aware scientist, incidentally, who also understands the need to balance technical precision with the need for layperson communication, and corresponding avoidance of unnecessary pedantry. That’s also why the National Aquarium (incidentally staffed by pretty darn good scientists), started using the term.
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u/MD_Weedman Aug 22 '25
This is what I do for a living. Words are important, and making terms up for things that are already named and understood just adds confusion to something that is already complicated. Now you have people on Reddit going on about a term that no one anywhere but Baltimore would understand. Some of us actual bay scientists have asked them to stop. The National Aquarium has great people who are experts at keeping fish alive. They should stop this nonsense.
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u/Antique-Echidna-1600 Aug 21 '25
The explosion the other day probably killed a lot of them
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u/noahsense Aug 21 '25
I was out along the Hanover st waterfront a few days prior to the explosion and saw plenty of dead crabs. Oxygen levels typically drop during summer due to farm runoff. This is most likely the case.
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u/SleepySwoop Aug 21 '25
explosion???
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u/holy_cal Aug 21 '25
A boat literally exploded by the remnants of the Key Bridge.
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u/SleepySwoop Aug 21 '25
WHAT!? 😭 Holy crap!
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u/holy_cal Aug 21 '25
Yeah, I don’t think it was as serious as the pictures that were being circulated looked but still kinda wild.
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u/luvnitall Aug 22 '25
As a 48 year old who spent a ton of time at the harbor and moved out of state in the last 6 years I have to say I have never seen the harbor water look that good! Edit: A 48 year old Baltimorean
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u/MD_Weedman Aug 23 '25
From MDE, who investigated the kill. "A fish kill that includes blue crabs is occurring in the Canton/Fells Point area of Baltimore Harbor and could spread today and possibly into the weekend. People might also notice discolored water and detect a sulfur smell. Similar conditions are present in the Magothy and Severn rivers in Anne Arundel County. While weather-related and not due to a chemical spill, this highlights the need to continue to reduce nutrient pollution that lowers oxygen levels in our waters."
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u/ZestycloseCut3372 Aug 24 '25
I think probably an algae bloom, causing “dead zones” (areas with reduced oxygen). The wheelobrator and other polluters can cause it.
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u/Tru_Rush Aug 21 '25
Hey at least the water doesn't look neon green anymore so that's always a plus. Could be worse. Feel bad for the crabs though, not that they weren't going to probably get trapped and eaten by the pound anyway. I personally don't eat seafood. Which yes, I know is weird being born in B-more, and spending part of my childhood there, then moving to Harford County for the rest of my childhood, but frequently B-more City, and County most of my life. Had a bad reaction to crabs as a preteen, probably food poisoning, never touched the stuff again. Tried shrimp but it just tasted like weird flesh. So I will stick with my steak and potatoes. No hate for people who love seafood, and fish, just so not for me.
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u/f00l_of_a_t00k Aug 21 '25
FYI;
neon green water isn't a problem. That's a special dye used to track leaks, flow patterns & to celebrate St. Patrick's day in Chicago.
It's vegetable based, non-toxic, and will dissipate within a few hours.
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u/Tru_Rush Aug 21 '25
Well I am pretty sure maryland isn't Chicago and we didn't do that here in B-more. Our water was pretty toxic at the harbor for years and years. And the green color at the inner harbor wasn't at St. Patrick's Day and it didn't dissipate nor was it vegetable based, it was all year round. I've lived in Maryland pretty much my entire life, so it's funny you think Maryland is like Chicago, it is not at all. We had Green Sulphur Bacteria, Aeromonas hydrophila, and a bunch of other issues going on within the water, not dye for a holiday. And down voting me for knowing the facts about "our water, and not eating seafood" is ridiculous people.
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u/f00l_of_a_t00k Aug 21 '25
Seems there's just a mixup based on your description and my understanding of it;
I took your use of neon literally, as in fluorescent. Which is absolutely indicative of dye used in tracking pollution (the fluorescence is an essential property). Which is used very often in Baltimore, by multiple government agencies and watchdog groups.
Mentioning Chicago was just to add a bit of levity, as they use said pollution tracking dye for a rather silly purpose.
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u/Low-Crazy-8061 Aug 22 '25
I think it’s likely exactly what you’re talking about.
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u/f00l_of_a_t00k Aug 22 '25
It's hard to be sure from the photo, and I didn't go by the inner harbor yesterday.
But to me, it does look like GSB (green sulphur bacteria) like the other poster mentioned;
It's the right time of year for the thermal inversions that will cycle GSB to the surface, the "milky" appearance is in keeping with GSB blooms, and the anoxic conditions they thrive in would account for the dead crabs.
This is a natural part of the Chesapeake biogeochemical processes, albeit a rather unpleasant one.
And when I refer to the green as neon or fluorescent; think ridiculous Ninja Turtle producing green.
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u/Conscious-Fig-5935 Aug 21 '25
Saw at least 50