The Delaware-Maryland Synod is one of three religious judicatories of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the State of Maryland. We have advocated for the health of the Chesapeake Bay, especially its aquaculture and estuarine wildlife, for several decades as a commitment to “Caring for Creation”, the 1993 ELCA environmental statement. We support regulation of commercial activity to preserve the life system known as the Bay. We, therefore, support Petition #392 to eliminate the use of open-ocean purse seine nets in the confined geography of this estuarium. Scraping the floor of the Bay, as nets designed for ocean fishing do, puts multiple wildlife species above and below the water surface at risk. It further compromises decades of public and private attention, effort, and expense to “save the Bay” for current and future shared benefit. We urge that commercial exploitation of the commons be regulated for the health of its natural order. And that the Atlantic coastal ecosystem be preserved with appropriate stewardship of natural gifts.