From Snails to Whales: Day 2. Observations: Perwinkles & Land Snails (Kris Pandeli)

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Day 2. Observations: Perwinkles & Land Snails (Kris Pandeli)

Monday: August 4^th, 2008.

Weather: sunny

Location: Lovells Island

Method:

Observed the periwinkles at the tidal pool at Lovells Island, took picture, took measurements, recorded colors, shapes, stripes, texture and other examinations of the samples we collected. Then we moved to the inland snails of the island to collect yet another diverse sample of snails and take the same approach as stated above. Many approaches were taken by students to group these snails and snail shells by their visible traits; mostly their color stripes and shape. Below there will be a better description by steps and procedures along with photos to make the descriptions more clear.

Tools:

This time I was better prepared as I brought with me a variety of tools to examine the species. The tools include: pen, pencil, paper, ruler, digital camera, magnifying glass, binoculars, and the guide book.

Observations and Data:

COMMON PERIWINKLES

First I will describe the periwinkles sampled form the tidal pool behind Lovells Island. About 30 to 40 ft. into the tidal pool me and fellow students pooled out a few different sizes of periwinkles ranging from .5 cm to 3cm wide in diameter. The first one I examined was 1.5 cm in diameter. On the tip or the cone it was a light brown color (area of 3-4 mm), with the major part of the shell being a dark brown/black color taking up (area 1 cm). The opening or the mouth of the periwinkle is a very bright brown about 1-2 mm all around.( See the sketch/See photo).

The second periwinkle was about 2.5 cm in diameter. Light brown all around only with 2 mm of white tip-top. The shell appears damaged and repaired/healed as you can see small cracked stripes. The texture of the surface is harder not as smooth as the younger/ smaller periwinkles. The coloration and the texture of the shell can be due to the fact that this could be somewhat older and more beat up against rocks and salt.

Another third sample was a few old periwinkle shells by the shoreline. They were 3.5 cm in diameter 1. lighter color probably due to deterioration and bleaching 2. Cracked shells and stripes 3. Light brown/yellow color close to the opening of the shell or the mouth.

LAND SNAILS/Comparison to Periwinkles

My first find happened to be of the two most common land snails found at the island. The Yellow snail with a black ribbon and the dark brown snail with the yellow/light brown ribbon. The brown snail also has the brown lip and you can also see the yellow snail with the white lip, and they both are eating at the green leave (Refer to the pic). They were mostly found stuck below the leaves of small trees. They were stuck underneath of the leaves because that’s the way they consume the leaves or maybe because they are less visible to predators, like the predatory birds. Fist of all the main difference that stuck out at me was that the land snails were rounder and not with at pointy tip like the periwinkles. Their shells were also smoother and they were more diverse in colorations. The color combinations included, yellow, brown, light brown, white, and pinkish. To my conclusion, I decided that these were still the same species (1 species). The second difference from the periwinkles was that the land snails when they moved you could see the whole lip, ears and head sticking out. The land snails moved faster than periwinkles as they also seemed to produce more of the slimy/slippery saliva. The periwinkles moved a lot slower and one almost could never see the lip.

Habitat: When we pulled the periwinkles out of the water they seemed to get dry and not moving slower than anything I have ever seen. They seemed like they did not like the heat of the sun. They felt more comfortable in the water. But the land snails even though they too were found in some wet/ humid areas they seemed more relaxed than the periwinkles out in the sun, and they moved a lot faster as they where slipping away from our hands. With our class discussions and listening to professor Berman the theory was that these two species could have evolved from one another.

The end of our collections we collected many shells of dead land snails. These shells differed in colorations and texture. Many students were chosen to try and group them by color and texture and many selections led the four main groups as seen in the photos below.

Today the weather was great and the trip was amazing. A little too long of a field trip but we all made it through. We all went home with more data and samples to write about. Today’s observations were a lot clearer and fascinating.

Enjoy the short video clips below.

~Kris Pandeli

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From Snails to Whales

Welcome to Snails to Whales, Bruce Berman's blog focused on both the little and the big things that make Boston Harbor such an interesting and extraordinary place to live, work and play.

With 50 miles of protected water, four sheltered bays, seven river systems, 34 islands and a nine-foot average tide, Boston Harbor is one of the most diverse urban ecosystems in America.

This blog focuses on the flora and fauna of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay - on the beach, the shore, and the harbor islands, and in the cleaner waters of Boston Harbor and Mass Bay - including this ecosystems most important species - people.

During the summer, it is also a place for my Boston University Students and my colleagues at Save the Harbor / Save the Bay to share their work and experiences.

Where I am coming from...

Love that clean(er) water
Learning about the Boston Harbor Cleanup from the waterway’s eyes, ears, and mouthpiece

By Brian Fitzgerald, BU Bridge

On Georges Island, Bruce Berman talks with his students about the history of the Boston Harbor Cleanup,
which is largely complete. Photo by Vernon Doucette

Bruce Berman, aboard a ferry from Boston’s Long Wharf to Georges Island, poses a question to his students: “How clean is clean enough?”

He’s talking about the water below.

It’s a brilliant July day, with the smell of salt spray in the air. The sky is clear, and so is the ocean. But there was a time when Boston Harbor wasn’t so clean, when the stench of sewage assaulted the nostrils of anyone who went near it.

Berman is the communications director for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, a public-interest environmental advocacy organization whose mission is to help restore and protect the harbor and Massachusetts Bay. He also teaches a Metropolitan College summer course called Politics, Public Relations, and Public Policy: The Boston Harbor Cleanup.

“The Boston Harbor Cleanup is an amazing success story, and I just love to share it with students,” says Berman, noting that the harbor’s “bad old days” weren’t that long ago. Those were the days when untreated human waste, syringes, condoms, and tampon applicators routinely washed ashore. The antiquated sewage treatment plants on Deer Island and Nut Island were so poorly designed and maintained that they flooded during even mild rainstorms, sending millions of gallons of untreated waste directly into the harbor.

Since then, bacteria counts in the water have decreased by more than two-thirds. Now the harbor teems with plants and animals, and people can legally dig for clams on Carson Beach in South Boston, which was unheard of in the 1980s.

“It was one of the filthiest harbors in America, and now it’s one of the cleanest,” says Berman. “What I’m trying to impress upon students is how this incredible comeback occurred, and how business, advocacy groups, environmentalists, and government can affect the outcome of large projects such as the Boston Harbor Cleanup through negotiation.”

Paradise regained

Berman points to the left as the boat cruises by the cleanup’s centerpiece: the gargantuan white egglike tanks of the Deer Island waste treatment plant, which in 1995 replaced the antiquated facility. The plant treats an average of 350 million gallons of sewage a day.

“And what comes out of the Deer Island treatment plant?” he asks. Berman, his booming baritone competing with the roar of planes taking off from Logan Airport, has a habit of putting students on the spot to see if they’re paying attention.

“The outfall pipe,” say several simultaneously. “Treated water,” chime in a few more.

“That’s right,” he says with a smile. “The plant separates the solid and liquid waste, and it pumps the treated water through the 9.5-mile outfall pipe, which empties into Massachusetts Bay. The resulting sludge is converted to high-grade fertilizer.”

Now Berman returns to his original question: “How clean is clean enough?” There’s no quick and clear answer to this one. “It’s a question that at the end of the day the federal courts had to decide.”

In 1985, a landmark federal court case required that the harbor’s beaches be made swimmable and fishable by 2000. Save the Harbor/Save the Bay was formed the next year to raise public awareness of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup. Sewer ratepayers in the 43 cities and towns financing the project cried foul over the prospect of astronomically rising bills, but because of the determination of environmental advocacy groups such as Berman’s, the cleanup was largely completed on schedule.

Berman says it isn’t finished, however. There are still frequent beach closures because the counts of Enterococcus bacteria exceed the federal and state standard for swimming. The culprit: filthy storm water and sewage, much of it from leaky pipes and illegal hookups emptying into storm sewers, and then into the harbor.

“So is the harbor clean enough,” the Springfield native asks his students, “when you can’t swim in it one out of five days in the summer?”

Work to be done

Berman and his class look out from Georges Island to Gallops Island (left) and the white tanks of the waste treatment plant on Deer Island (right). Photo by Vernon Doucette

This summer the state approved one of the last parts of the cleanup: the construction, by 2011, of a 2.1-mile tunnel near the Dorchester and South Boston shorelines that will hold sewage and storm water during bad weather. It then will be pumped to Deer Island for treatment.

Berman is ecstatic over this development, the result of “tireless negotiation and consensus-building,” he says. “After 2011, we’re looking at beach closings once every five years, when there is a major storm, instead of once every five days.”

But he is not about to let his guard down. To say that he is a man obsessed with the harbor cleanup would be an understatement. Berman is also Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s “Baywatcher,” and he lives on his 40-foot trawler Verandah. Polluters beware: if you’re discharging oil or sewage into Boston Harbor, the Baywatcher just might be watching.

He is quick to point out that his zealotry is not just on behalf of the harbor’s flora and fauna. “The harbor is for everyone,” he says. “If you’re from a working class or poor family in Boston, and you can’t afford a Cape Cod getaway in the summer, a clean harbor is important. The same is true if you’re a tourist vacationing in Boston or you happen to live in a pricey waterfront condo.”

Accordingly, Berman, who was a political consultant and contributing editor to the Phoenix newspaper before joining Save the Harbor/Save the Bay nearly 10 years ago, also teaches his students about the harbor’s role in the city’s economy. He points out that in the early 1990s, just a few ferries cruised the harbor’s waters. Today, more than 100,000 people visit its islands each summer, discovering their ecological and historic treasures.

“The best way to protect the harbor cleanup,” Berman tells his students, “is to make sure that the public has access to the resources and can see a return on its investment.”

Trevor Kosmolsick (MET’05) has lived in Boston for seven years, but until taking Berman’s course, he had never been to the waterfront. “I’ve also wanted to go camping in the area, but I never knew that you could camp on a few of the islands,” he says. “Bruce Berman is not only a great professor, but the ultimate tour guide.”

He also backs up his words with actions. Sometimes he takes off his shirt and dives in the water to demonstrate to passing boaters that it’s safe to swim. To show people on ferries that fishing is safe, he’s been known to grab one of the bluefish or striped bass he’s caught and (very carefully) plant a wet kiss on it.

“What I want everyone to understand is that investment in the environment really does pay off,” says Berman. “We’re willing to pay for a clean Boston Harbor, so we should enjoy it.”

From Snails to Whales

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Day 2. Observations: Perwinkles & Land Snails (Kris Pandeli)

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