Chesapeake Bay Bowl back to full strength

Delaware Sea Grant welcomed competitors to the University of Delaware’s Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes to participate in the 2025 Chesapeake Bay Bowl (CBB) and for the first time since 2020, the bowl saw a full suite of 12-teams participate in the competition.

The CBB is a regional competition of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) where teams of four or five participants answer questions based on the marine sciences in a quick answer timed format and more complex team challenge questions.  

12 teams representing different schools from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware competed in this year’s competition, which took place in the Harry L. Cannon Marine Studies Laboratory.

George Mason University partnered with Delaware Sea Grant (DESG) and UD in organizing the event.

Last year was the first in-person competition to take place since the COVID-19 pandemic and David Christopher, marine education specialist with DESG, said it was great to once again have the competition in-person at the Cannon Lab.

“Having it in the lab is great because the students participating in the competition get to walk the halls that the UD students walk and they’re here in the building getting to check out the UD facilities,” said Christopher. “It’s exciting to use the new teaching lab in the building. In fact, the new teaching lab was instrumental in us having enough space to host the competition and so having it was beneficial to making this happen.”

The A team from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia took home first place. They will represent the Mid-Atlantic Region at the NOSB National Finals which will be held virtually in May. They also will receive a half-day tour on the R/V Joanne Daiber.

The second-place team was State College Team A from Pennsylvania, who received a tour of the National Aquarium in Baltimore as their prize. The third-place team was Thomas Jefferson B and the fourth place was the Marine Academy for Science and Technology Team A from Highlands, New Jersey.

Christopher said there were 50 volunteers that helped make this event possible and the science judges, moderators and staff included Delaware Sea Grant professionals as well as UD students, staff and faculty.

Brittany Haywood, coastal ecology specialist, served as the head score keeper this year. Christopher said he wanted to thank all the volunteers and singled out Ingrid Miller, administrative assistant for DESG, for handling a lot of the logistics of the competition and Tammy Beeson, art director for DESG and the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment, for designing the competition t-shirts.

Having been involved in the Chesapeake Bay Bowl since 2000, Christopher said this year’s event was a great day all around and he is looking forward to next year’s competition which will be hosted by George Mason University.

“This was the Bay Bowl’s 26th year and I’ve been around with it for a very long time in various capacities—this year I served as the head rules judges. It was a packed day, lots of stuff going on, but it’s always fun and I always enjoy doing it,” said Christopher. “Next year, we’re supposed to be back at George Mason. They’ve been such an excellent partner for this. We work closer and closer each year on doing this and I’m excited to see how the Thomas Jefferson team does at the national competition.”