I have often heard that the Chesapeake Bay is one of the world’s largest estuaries. What is an estuary?

An estuary is a body of water located near a coast where the freshwater from a river or a bay mixes with saltwater from the ocean.

The Chesapeake Bay is fed freshwater from thousands of miles of tributaries and rivers. The saltwater is provided by the Atlantic Ocean. This blending of fresh and salt water creates a unique environment and a diverse ecosystem that provides habitat for countless numbers of plants and animals.

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and the second largest in the...