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BAY BULLETIN
BAY BULLETIN
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HURRICANE SEASON UPGRADED FROM “ABOVE AVERAGE” TO “EXTREMELY ACTIVE”
On the heels of Tropical Storm Isaias, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says this Atlantic hurricane season could be one of the busiest since their forecasting began.
The Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook released in May predicted an above-average 2020 season, one with 13 to 19 named storms. In the August update, NOAA says conditions are primed to fuel storm development, leading to an 85 percent chance we’ll see an “extremely active” season of 19 to 25 named storms.
Already the 2020 season has set a record with nine named storms so far (historically, only about two named storms form by this point in the season).
“This is one of the most active seasonal forecasts that NOAA has produced in its 22-year history of hurricane outlooks,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “We encourage all Americans to do their part by getting prepared, remaining vigilant, and being ready to take action when necessary.”
Of the 19 to 25 named storms predicted, NOAA calls for seven to 11 of them to become hurricanes, including three to six major hurricanes with winds of 111 miles per hour or greater.
“This year, we expect more, stronger, and longer-lived storms than average, and our predicted ACE (accumulated cyclone energy) range extends well above NOAA’s threshold for an extremely active season,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
The current oceanic and atmospheric conditions (warm sea surface, reduced vertical wind shear, weaker trade winds, and an enhanced west African monsoon) are expected to continue for the next several months.
The six-month Atlantic hurricane season lasts until November 30. It’s important to note that NOAA’s outlook is for storms that form, not those that make landfall. Landfalls are largely determined by short-term weather pat
Left: National Weather Service radar image from the morning Tropical Storm Isaias reached the Chesapeake Bay. Above: Workers with Chesapeake Seafood Caterers based in St. Michaels were on site at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium to steam and pack crabs for the Rotary Club of Annapolis whose members and volunteers put the crabs, corn, brown paper, paper towels, and mallets in the trunk of cars as people pulled up at the drive-thru crab feast. Photos: Cheryl Costello
terns, which are only predictable about a week before a storm’s potential arrival at the coast.
FEMA encourages people preparing for hurricanes to keep the COVID-19 pandemic in mind when preparing for storms. See more at www.ready.gov/hurricanes.
—MEG WALBURN VIVIANO
DRIVE-THRU ROTARY CLUB CRAB FEAST A SELLOUT SUCCESS
Last Friday evening, a long line of cars replaced what the Rotary Club of Annapolis calls the World’s Largest Crab Feast.
More than 2,000 guests have packed into the Navy Marine-Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis for decades to crack crabs, elbow to elbow. This feast was supposed to mark the crab feast’s 75th year in a row. But as we know, 2020 is cracking plans.
So, the Rotary Club pivoted instead, steaming crabs right there at the stadium and handing them out in a drivethru line.
Keith Hutchins, a longtime crab feast attendee, didn’t hesitate to support the reimagined crab feast. “It was a must. And when I saw that it was ‘crab to-go,’ I said I’m in. I ordered a bushel right away,” Hutchins says.
From a dozen to that full bushel, every sale will help local charities, which can apply for grants following the event. “This event normally provides grants to 20 to 24 local charities and we want to keep that going,” Rotary Club President Frank Andracchi tells Bay Bulletin.
Leigh Rand, the club’s crab feast chairperson, admits, “We definitely thought about canceling it. We decided it was really important to stay in the community, and especially in this time that people would need this kind of funds.”
“They need money. Everybody needs money these days. And I’m lucky, I can help support charities,” Kathy Strouss told us as she picked up her crabs.
With 220 bushels sold, bagging, boxing, and delivering to waiting customers was no small feat. Chesapeake Seafood Caterers brought trailers with boilers that connect to huge pots. They spent three days catching and processing the crabs.
“Most people that buy their crabs don’t realize that someone had to go
through them multiple times to make sure there wasn’t a dead crab or there wasn’t some sort of trash in the bushel basket,” said co-owner Adam Higgins.
After drivers checked into the sta- dium, they got a windshield tag to show what they’d bought and were then directed to a lane where they popped their trunks and volunteers loaded them up with crabs.
Every “guest” was sent home with corn, brown paper for the table, paper towels and mallets. “It’s actually kind of nice to be at my own house. This seems to work seamlessly, too,” says Hutchins.
Somewhere around $30,000 will be handed out to local charities thanks to this year’s event. It falls short by about $20,000 of a normal year, but as And- racchi points out, “That’s better than zero.”
The Rotary Club plans to return to full feast-mode in 2021, when they will offi- cially celebrate the crab feast’s 75th an- niversary.
—CHERYL COSTELLO
10K FISH DEAD ON SEVERN RIVER DUE TO ISAIAS
Dead fish have shown up en masse on the Severn River in the days follow- ing Tropical Storm Isaias.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 Atlantic menhaden died in Sullivan Cove imme- diately following the storm and another 7,500 surfaced in Lake Ogleton, near the mouth of the Severn, the next day. Another couple thousand dead fish were reported near Chesapeake Harbour Ma- rina, just north of Lake Ogleton.
The Maryland Department of the En- vironment (MDE) investigated the fish kills and spokesman Jay Apperson tells Bay Bulletin all three incidents were a result of anoxic bottom water intrusion. The tropical storm’s strong winds mixed up the water column, bringing low-oxy- gen water from the bottom up to the top, where fish congregate.
As Severn River Association President Tom Guay explains, “Unfortunately, when Isaias rolled up the river, it caused an upswelling of the low-oxygen water that overcame the fish before they could swim away. They suffocated.”
Apperson describes the dismal scene MDE found:
“Crabs were actively attempting to reach the shoreline to evade suffoca- tion, and other species of fish (Amer- ican eels, spot and killifish) were milling at the surface,” Apperson says.
After the tropical storm, the Anne Arundel County Health Department swiftly issued a No Swimming or Di- rect Contact Advisory, warning people not to swim, kayak, paddleboard or jet ski in county waterways for 48 hours after the storm. For select areas that experienced sewage overflows (Back Creek, Lake Ogleton, Black Walnut Creek and Fishing Creek, all in An- napolis) the direct contact advisory lasts a full seven days. See the lat- est updates at https://aahealth.org/ recreational-water-quality-report/.
—MEG WALBURN VIVIANO
Graphic artist Joe Barsin designed the anniversary poster for Quiet Waters Park, drawing on his own family’s experiences within the park over the years.
Local Artist Celebrates Quiet Waters in 30th Anniversary Poster
BY KRISTA PFUNDER
Local artist Joe Barsin highlights the delights of what he calls “the playground of Annapolis” in a new poster to honor the 30th anniversary of (and raise funds for) Quiet Waters Park.
Making sure to capture all the elements the park offers was a challenge, but Barsin pulled from his personal connection to showcase what he loves.
“I walked the trails of Quiet Waters on dates with my future wife, Eva,” Barsin says. “We have played, skated and kayaked with our boys while they were growing up. This poster is a celebration of Quiet Waters Park and what it has given to me.”
The park—which opened in September of 1990—attracts more than one million visitors a year. Its 300-plus acres are open year-round and feature a concert stage, wedding and event facilities, an ice-skating rink in the winter, paddlesports and even a dog beach in the warmer months.
Barsin’s designs may look familiar. He is the artist behind Maryland’s popular Treasure the Chesapeake license plate, the logos for the Annapolis Film Festival, Anne Arundel Medical Center’s Fish for a Cure and more.
“Working with Quiet Waters art director Bill Martin, we decided we wanted to capture three things in the poster,” Barsin says. “The four seasons, a celebration of nature and the community as well as the activities people enjoy.”
Barsin chose the blue heron as the central element in the design. “Its natural beauty, soaring above the park is a celebration of nature,” Barsin says. “The heron defines the composition of the quadrants of the four seasons.”
The poster is available for purchase in two sizes, an 11x17 is $5 and the larger 18x24 is $15. There are a lim
“We decided we wanted to capture three things in the poster: the four seasons, a celebration of nature and community, as well as the activities people enjoy.” — Joe Barsin
ited number of posters signed by Barsin available for $30. All sales benefit Quiet Waters Park. Posters can be purchased at the Visitor’s Center Monday through Friday from 10am-3pm. Ring the bell for service.
BY JILLIAN AMODIO
Some historians will say that the Women’s Suffrage movement began in 1848 with a women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. Many suffragists view this meeting as the spark that lit the movement ablaze. But long before this historic milestone, there were many emboldened women paving the way towards equal rights—one of them, right here in Chesapeake country.
Visitors to Historic Saint Mary’s City can stand in the very place Margaret Brent boldly requested the right to vote.
Brent (1601-1671) was a colonist that settled in the New World in 1638 as a landowner from England, secured a land grant and engaged in trading and business ventures. She often appeared in court to help settle debts and on occasion acted on behalf of others including her brothers and eventually, Lord Baltimore. On his deathbed, Governor Leonard Calvert appointed her his executor and encouraged Brent to “take all and pay all.” His faith in Brent was unwavering, but Calvert’s brother, the Lord Baltimore, didn’t share the same convictions. Brent was named Lord Baltimore’s attorney after Calvert’s death as an emergency act by the Provincial Court, since he was away in England and Calvert’s soldiers needed to be paid. To help ensure the well-being of the settlement and care for the needs of the soldiers Brent famously went before the assembly and demanded two votes, one for herself as a landowner, and the second as Lord Baltimore’s attorney. This is the first recorded instance of a woman in the New World requesting voting rights. The courts denied her request, not wanting to allow women the right to vote.
THURSDAY August 20 • 5:00 to 9:00pm M U S I C & E N T E R TA I N M E N T Sponsored by The Annapolis Gallery Association ART•ARTISTS•DEMONSTRATIONS
Top: Part of the Rightfully Hers pop-up exhibit on the Suffrage Movement, now on display at Historic St. Mary’s City. Photo: National Archives. Middle: Suffragettes with a bonfire and posters at the White House, Washington, DC, in 1918. Photo: National Archives. Bottom: The site of Margaret Brent’s request for “vote and voyce” in Historic St. Mary’s. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
A new exhibit at Historic St. Mary’s City explores women’s rights, past, present, and future. The pop-up exhibition from the National Archives is called Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote, and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment and highlights the relentless struggle of diverse activists throughout U.S. history to secure voting rights for all American women.
The 19th Amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920, granted American women the right to vote. But for many women, the 19th Amendment wasn’t the final piece of the puzzle.
Discrimination against minorities was still rampant. African Americans and the illiterate in the South were restricted by literacy tests and poll taxes. Much of this was later remedied with the passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 which banned racial discrimination in voting practices. The more recent Equal Rights Amendment, passed by the Senate in 1972, was never actually ratified.
The exhibit is located inside the Visitor Center at Historic St. Mary’s City. Visitor Center hours of operation are currently Wednesday through Saturday, 10am-5pm. Social distancing is advised and masks should be worn when touring indoor exhibits.
Volunteer coordinator Ellen Fitzgerald hopes visitors will stop in to learn about the Suffrage movement. “We can’t stop learning just because we are stuck at home,” she said. “We hope they feel empowered to continue the work that women like Margaret Brent once started.” p
110 Dock Street 410.263.4100 Open M-Sa 10am-6pm • Su 11am-5pm www.annapolismarineart.com
Juried artwork by members of Annapolis Arts Alliance
SHOP ONLINE OR VISIT US AT 57 West Street | Annapolis gallery57west.com
Art Walk
Art Sale Learn How Frames Change Art Maria’s Picture Place 45 MARYLAND AVENUE • 410-263-8282
Celebrating the Arts
in ANNAPOLIS
WEST STREET
n Nancy Hammond Editions 192 West Street n Gallery 57 West 57 West Street n Annapolis Collection Gallery 55 West Street
MAIN STREET
n Main Street Gallery 216A Main Street n McBride Gallery 215 Main Street
MARYLAND AVE
n Maria’s Picture Place 45 Maryland Avenue n Joe Fleming Contemporary 68 Maryland Avenue
CITY DOCK
n Annapolis Marine Art Gallery 110 Dock Street
EASTPORT
n Lisa Masson Studio Gallery 511 Fourth Street
FREE FOR ART WALK EVENING — HILLMAN GARAGE
Hillman Garage: Knighton Garage:
Enter Duke of Gloucester St. or Main St. Enter on Colonial Drive off West St.
Gotts Court Garage State Parking Garage:
Enter Calvert Street or Northwest Street 19 St. Johns St. (free weekdays after 6pm, all day weekends)
