Chesapeake Bay Report 2016 finds improvements

The Chesapeake Bay is historic with the Delmarva Peninsula and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation gave their biannual State of the Bay Report on January 5, 2017.

And this year marks the foundation's 50th year in trying to making the bay even better.

A C-is the report card grade for The Chesapeake Bay for 2016 and that C- is actually the highest score ever received since 1998.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation, known as CBF, says the bay is improving.

The report is measured in 13 different subjects scored from 0 to 100.

The thirteen are divided into three categories, fisheries, habitat and population. The scores are equally weighted and they are correlated to a letter grade.

Out of those 13, nine have improved overall.

One of the biggest improvements and an Eastern Shore favorite is crabs.

Tom Horton is an SU environmental studies professor and a Chesapeake Bay book writer for about 8 to 9 books.

He tells 47 ABC the report card insures that progress is made but one of the biggest things falling behind is forested buffers.

Horton says that despite the progress, we need to continue building that momentum. He says, "We were going to bring the bay back to pretty good state by 2010 and blew those deadlines, all the bay states and the federal government. And now the deadline is 2025."

Horton also says that everyone can give by voting for politicians who promise to restore the environment and states, "We're facing some real challenges and we have to move ahead. We can't spend the next several years playing defense."

Maryland's senator Ben Cardin, who made a statement on the report card stating, "To reach an A minus, we will need to accelerate and redouble our efforts. I am committed to redoubling mine. I am determined to pass on a vibrant and healthy Chesapeake Bay to the next generation for the sake of public health and the local economies that depend on a clean and bountiful Bay."