The Bay is well-known for its seafood, especially blue crabs, clams, and oysters. In the middle of the 20th century, the Bay supported 9,000 full-time watermen, according to one account. Today, the body of water is less productive than it used to be because of runoff from urban areas (mostly on the Western Shore) and farms (especially on the Eastern Shore and in the Susquehanna River watershed), over-harvesting, and invasion of foreign species.
The plentiful oyster harvests led to the development of the skipjack, the state boat of Maryland, which is the only remaining working boat type in the United States still under sail power. Other characteristic bay-area workboats include sail-powered boats such as the log canoe, the pungy, the bugeye, and the motorized Chesapeake Bay deadrise, the state boat of Virginia.
In addition to harvesting wild oysters, oyster farming is a growing industry in the Bay. Oyster aquaculture is passive in that the Bay provides all the natural oyster food needed, making it an environmentally friendly practice in contrast to other kinds of fish farming. Oyster farms provide jobs as well as a natural effort for filtering excess nutrients from the water in an effort to reduce the effects of eutrophication pollution (too much algae). The Chesapeake Bay Program promotes oyster restoration projects to reduce the amount of nitrogen compounds entering the bay.
The Bay is famous for its rockfish, a regional name for striped bass. Once on the verge of extinction, rockfish have made a significant comeback because of legislative action that put a moratorium on rockfishing, which allowed the species to re-populate. Rockfish can now be fished in strictly controlled and limited quantities.
Other popular recreational fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay include shad, cobia, croaker, and redfish, winter flounder, and summer flounder. Recently, non-native blue catfish have proliferated in tributaries like the James River and may be moving to other areas of the Bay. A commercial fishery exists for menhaden, too oily for human consumption but instead used for bait, fish oil, and livestock feed.