An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Provides access to all site resources, with the option to search by species common and scientific names. Resources can be filtered by Subject, Resource Type, Location, or Source. Search Help
Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Marine Invasions Research Lab. National Exotic Marine and Estuarine Species Information System (NEMESIS).
The Chesapeake Bay Database project ended in 2020. This site will remain available for historical reference, but the database has not been updated since 2020 and will not receive any further updates. See more information in the project overview. For up to date information on introduced marine and estuarine invertebrates and algae in Chesapeake Bay, please visit the NEMESIS North American database.
In 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the publication, Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping: Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Citizens, schools, non profit organizations, communities and government agencies used this resource to find the native plants that met their local conditions and interests in order to create landscapes to attract wildlife and reduce the amount of pollutants going into the Chesapeake Bay.
To reach more citizens and organizations, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service envisioned an online version of the guide, the Native Plants Center Chesapeake Region. This expanded online guide includes a geo-locator feature to identify plants suited to your location, a searchable database of the native plants that meet your conditions, and (coming soon) an online network to interact with other Chesapeake Bay stewards.
A report by attorney Read D. Porter that examines coordination on aquatic invasive species (AIS) prevention among the Chesapeake Bay states. The report focuses on prevention-related legal authorities in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in particular, and recommends actions to improve regional cooperation both within the existing regulatory frameworks and through potential amendments to state laws and regulations to enhance prevention.