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Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I rise to address an amendment to augment the Army Corps of Engineers oyster restoration program by $7 million. This is a critical investment in the health of America's largest estuary.
The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure. It was the port of entry for Jamestown's European settlers. Many of America's founding fathers, from George Washington to George Mason, settled on the banks of the Bay and tidal reaches of her tributaries. When the colonists arrived, the Bay was extraordinarily fecund. John Smith wrote that one could walk across the backs of swimming rockfish and that a single turtle could feed 40 men. He also wrote that oysters ``lay thick as stones'' covering the Bay's floor. This productivity fueled economic growth in our region. In the early 20th century, H.L. Mencken wrote that oysters, as the most common fare in Baltimore, were the standard meal of every workingman.
Today, we are attempting to restore an ecosystem and oyster population that has been devastated by pollution, to the extent that some have proposed replacing it with nonnative oysters. The Bay's economic productivity, whose fisheries are still worth over $100 million a year, relies on the health of its oyster population, not only for their own value but also because they are a keystone species for the Bay and the major filtration for pollutants in the Bay.
This amendment is an important part of our broader efforts to restore the health of the Bay. I thank Mr. Pastor and Mr. Frelinghuysen for the committee's support for this amendment and the subcommittee's staff for their assistance.
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