From Snails to Whales: cruising the harbor and scoping the wharfs

Saturday, August 1, 2009

cruising the harbor and scoping the wharfs

Today was an incredible experience. It was my first time for a lot of the things we did. The conditions could not have been any better. It was 80 degrees fahrenheit with a comfortable breeze. The day started at Starbucks, which was nice since I am a huge coffee fan. While there, we engaged in a crammed but very interesting history lesson. We learned from the time when the earth separated and how the glaciers carved the drumlins (boston harbor islands) to how the "Boston Harbor Clean-Up" was created all the way up until present day. After that, we went on a cruise around the harbor where we got to see many of the islands and learned both how these Islands were utilized and how they got their respective names. Many of them are named after an object it resembles or after the person who owns/owned it. All of this was done by noon, where we took a break for lunch and returned to resume class at 1. When we got back to Long Wharf we could immediatley tell the change in the tide which had sunk substantially. When we further observed the wharf we see the difference between the man-made part and the floating part of dock. The man-made area was closest to the sea wall. It contained some black and green seaweed(rockweed) and you could see oyster shell and mussells. It was very shallow. Fifty feet away from there, there was more color and less rockweed. This part of the dock was always wet. Therefore it is capable of hosting more, different kinds of marine life. There was some kelp, some orangey stuff and some green leafy sea lettuce. Just from this observation you can assume that there is much more wildlife outside of the harbor than there is closer to the city. From here, we "broke into" haha Rowes Wharf. While here we got to look under a floating dock that was shaded. Here I saw some barnacles, sponge, shells, and I was even able to see a fish through this dark and murky water. Our observation time got interrupted and were were forced to leave. Next we stopped at the Four-Point Channel, which I think used to be a fort. Gillette is the biggest company that utilizes this passage. Here we also learned about the different ways that they create bridges that are able to allow boats through. There are three different types: Counter Wake, Spin, and Rails (which work like a track that swings the bridge open). Storm water rushes through this area at high spees. Here, we also learned about the "Brackish" water which means it has more salinity than fresh water. To the "Barking Crab" we go. This was a very fun experience. We got to see things some peculiar things up-close. We saw some life forms that we had seen at the previous sites, but we also saw diffent kinds of life. Some sea weed that was grime-encrusted and a little distorted in view and we could see some stuff that kinda of looked like a star pattern which we(me, Monique and Nick) think to be called Golden Star Tunicate(sunny area). We also saw some stuff that looked like a kind of tiger or leopard print, which we think is called Black Speckled Byrozoan. We also noticed all of the different living animals on this plant. Under the dock was some kind of white spiky ball(dark area only) which I am not sure, but I hink might be called a Lined Anenome, which was right next to some shells which appeared to have some tentacles or something popping out. I could not find the name of this animal or plant. There were also some Red Beard Sponge and some Blue Mussels.

Coming from California, I know that when it rains that the level of bacteria increases, because of all the dirt and debris that it can push into the water. This can make it hazardous to someones health and increase their chances of getting sick. The plus side is that the ocean receives more nutrients. Salinity decreases because the water dilutes it, therfore making the water clearer(Trabidity). The current increases and I would think this makes it tougher for certain small animals and plants to stay put. So, that could mean less or different marine life in an area.

Last years picture looks much busier with more going on. I think I had to go with it being so rainy lately that, that is why there is less life on/under the dock. Plants/animals get pushed out, maybe they have to move to spot that is more saline? I am not sure. However, I am sure abbout one thing, the water sure looked cleaner.

-Ryan Santana
My partners were: monique and nick

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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

Saturday, August 1, 2009

cruising the harbor and scoping the wharfs

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