The Chesapeake Bay watershed spans about 64,000 square miles across six states and Washington, D.C. It gives more than 18 million people clean water, fish and wildlife, and places to get outdoors, and it carries an economy of about $1.6 trillion a year in gross domestic product and more than 10 million jobs. Much of that economy rests directly on the watershed's land and water — which is why the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) argues that its monitoring is an economic service, not only an environmental one.
The Chesapeake Bay watershed in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Map: U.S. Geological Survey.
What the watershed's economy is made of
| Sector | Its size | What the USGS does for it |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 60,000+ farms; $13 billion a year in sales | monitors water quality and quantity on farms to guide conservation practices; studies how avian influenza spreads, to protect poultry farms |
| Commercial fishing | over $1 billion a year in seafood sales | tracks the estuarine and marine species fisheries depend on, and the forage fish that feed them |
| Recreational fishing | 1.7 million anglers; $2.4 billion in trip spending; 5,600 saltwater-fishing jobs | counts and maps prized species such as brook trout and smallmouth bass; studies their health, habitat and passage |
| Boating and tourism | $1.7 billion a year in boating and fishing GDP; 500,000 registered boats | measures streamflow in real time on more than 500 streams and rivers; uses it to assess floods and forecast drought |
| Housing | 56,000 single-family homes built a year; $400–700 million in possible property-value gains from cleaner water | supplies 1-meter land-use data for every community; forecasts natural hazards on the coast |
| Migratory bird hunting | 75,000 hunters; $75 million a year in spending | long-term science on bird populations and movements, used to set sustainable harvests; wildlife disease |
| Shipping | 5.5 million tons of cargo and $4 billion in revenue a year; 50,000+ jobs | finds beneficial uses for material dredged from shipping channels; forecasts how sea-level rise and subsidence will affect ports |
Growth, and what it leans on
From 2014 to 2024, real GDP in the watershed grew by more than 17 percent, helped along by outdoor recreation. New single-family housing grew by over 9 percent in the same decade, and population by over 7 percent from 2010 to 2020 — more demand for land and infrastructure in the same watershed.
That growth depends on the condition of the natural resources underneath it. One estimate puts their benefits at about $148 billion a year. Continued degradation could cut that by roughly $7 billion a year; meeting restoration goals could add about $31 billion (Phillips and McGee, 2014).
Where the science comes in
- On the land: 1-meter land-use data tracking development and land change across the whole watershed.
- Along the coast: how wetland loss and changing conditions affect infrastructure and communities.
- In the rivers: streamflow and water quality at hundreds of sites, to follow floods, droughts and pollution loads.
A hydrologic technician taking a water-quality sample at Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River in Maryland. Photo: David Fisher, U.S. Geological Survey.
The watershed's states spent more than $1.6 billion on conservation and restoration in 2024 — about 2.5 times federal conservation funding. The USGS's case is that money spent at that scale should be spent on evidence.
How the numbers were counted
State and county figures were weighted by area: each state's or county's economic activity was counted in proportion to the share of its land inside the watershed. The fact sheet chose this over weighting by population because farming, fishing, land use and water quality depend on land and water, not on where people live — and it is transparent and repeatable with public data.
Sources
Written from U.S. Geological Survey Science Supports a Thriving Chesapeake Bay Watershed Economy, U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2026–3022; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Its figures come from the Chesapeake Bay Program, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, NOAA Fisheries, the USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2011 national survey, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Census Bureau, Martin Associates' 2023 study of the Port of Baltimore, Klemick and others (2016), and Phillips and McGee (2014). The map and photograph are reproduced from the fact sheet.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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