In Anne Arundel County, it sounds like visiting boaters may be keeping marinas afloat. A new study by the Maryland Sea Grant Extension and the University of Maryland estimates that out-of-state boaters from Maine to Florida are spending $150 million annually in Anne Arundel. All told, boating is a $1.5 billion industry in Maryland …

In Calvert County, President George W. Bush was in a joking mood when he visited Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant last week for what industry officials say was his sixth endorsement of expanding nuclear power this year. After a tour of the control room, Bush remarked, “I can play like I understand what I saw.” Introducing Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, the president joked, “He’s the Ph.D and I’m the C student. But notice who is the adviser and who is the president.”

In Washington, a Senate-House conference will determine the fate of several Chesapeake Bay funding programs that Maryland’s senators inserted in a spending bill despite opposition by the House and the Bush administration. On the table are: $2.25 million for a small watersheds grant program to restore stream corridors and $2 million for the Bay gateways and water trails program …

On the Eastern Shore, the question now is what will an MOU do for you? Continuing his enviromental strategy of voluntary complicance, Gov. Robert Ehrlich and poultry industry execs last week signed a memorandum of understanding committing companies to reducing pollution and helping poultry houses with waste management plans …

In California, a new study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Hawaii reported in New Scientist magazine casts doubt on the wisdom of the Bay’s trophy rockfish season. The study concluded that taking big fish, especially females, and leaving small ones harms the fish population because the offspring of big fish tend to grow bigger and faster …

In Chesapeake Bay, the Army Corps of Engineers continues to oversee dumping of thousands of tons of dredge spoils from the Port of Baltimore at rapidly expanding Poplar Island, 2.5 miles northwest of Tilghman Island. Now the Corps wants to expand to bring in the bottom muck from approach channels to the C&D Canal and other federal navigation projects. Read about the environmental tradeoff at www.nab.usace.army.mil/projects/Maryland/PoplarIsland.

Our Creature Feature comes from Ecuador, where the rapid and mysterious disappearance of frogs is alarming scientists. It’s happening in rain forests and elsewhere as a result of global warming, pollution and disease, scientists say.
           
At least five species of frogs have become extinct in just the last 25 years, according to a new report called Disappearing Jewels by the advocacy group NatureServe. And it’s not just frog legs or those reassuring croaks researchers are worried about. Frog secretions have been used as drugs for hundreds of years. Now, researchers say, their valuable properties are being lost forever.