Bay Facts

The Bay receives about half its water volume from the Atlantic Ocean in the form of saltwater. The other half (freshwater) drains into the Bay from the enormous 64,000-square-mile watershed.

The Bay’s width ranges from four miles near Aberdeen, Maryland, to 30 miles near cape Charles, Virginia.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed stretches approximately 524 miles from Cooperstown, New York, to Norfolk, Virginia. It includes parts of six states—Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia—and the entire District of Columbia.

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

A few deep troughs run along much of the Bay’s length and are believed to be remnants of the ancient Susquehanna River.

The Bay itself is about 200 miles long, stretching from Havre de Grace, Maryland, to Virginia Beach, Virginia.

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

At filter feeders, oysters can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day.

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

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

Captain John Smith and his men sailed the Chesapeake Bay in a modest wooden boat called a shallop–an open wooden workboat such as a barge, dory, or rowboat that was small enough to row but also had one or two sails.

The Chesapeake Bay’s land-to-water ratio is 14:1: the largest of any coastal water body in the world. This is why our actions on land have such a big impact on the Bay’s health.

The Bay and its tidal tributaries have 11,684 miles of shoreline—more than the entire U.S. west coast.

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

Water temperatures in the Bay fluctuate widely throughout the year, reaching as high as 84 degrees in summer.

The 110-mile-long Patuxent River is the longest river to flow exclusively within the borders of Maryland.