The Aquarium Conservation Team (ACT) provides volunteer participants like you with hands-on opportunities to help restore habitats, learn about watershed dynamics, and develop the knowledge and skills to serve as participants or leaders in environmental stewardship.
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and one of the largest in the entire world. With waters that lap at the very foundations of the Aquarium's main buildings, the Bay's importance to the Aquarium and to the city of Baltimore cannot be overstated.
Water from approximately 15 million people drains into the Bay, from Washington, D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and as far north as upstate New York.
The impact of so many people on the health of the Bay is immense. Pollution, overfishing, development, and the introduction of foreign species have occurred as the result of human activities on the water’s surface and shorelines.
That damage also occurs hundreds of miles away, near the waters that drain to the bay, as a result of the most mundane of human activities—from building homes and businesses, to growing fruits and vegetables, driving cars, and mowing lawns.
The Aquarium strives to foster a sense of community responsibility and participation in the preservation and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay by providing education and action opportunities.
