From Snails to Whales

Monday, August 3, 2009

Hi Guys!

I had a blast yesterday, my advisor wasn't kidding when she told me how interesting and how much fun this class was suppose to be, according to students that took this class in past.

The weather started out sunnier and later in the day the clouds got a little heavier. During the ride in the first boat professor Bernan explained something which I never paid much attention to, natural selection. How new species are introduced to the Eco-system and how others succumb.

When we arrived at the Lovells Island we had a chance to hear a small introduction about the island by one of the park rangers. Looking at the map on the sign by the entrance I notice a small spot on the northern part of the island where we would end up walking by and learning about invasive plants as well and its impact on the salt marsh.

Our first stop was at Cobble Beach where we learn about the "Brazil nut phenomenon" where small particles like sand end up at the bottom and larger objects end up on top. Cobble Beach was a perfect example of that, we saw not much larger rocks at higher ground. We also talked about the effect of people, erosion and the periwinkles on the shape and size of islands.

Our first organism to be analyzed was the periwinkles, an introduced specie brought from Europe more than 100 years ago. We found many dead ones as well as some live ones. Professor Bernan mentioned that periwinkles can destroy or modify the size of sand area on beaches. We also learned about how they survive. Other than food moisture is very important for them. They have are covered with a protective operculum works as natural door that keeps the periwinkle from becoming dry, for instance low tides.

After having lunch with the "lunch less" members of the hockey team...we walked by the salt marsh. I apologize for not recalling the lady's name, we learned about the invasive species of plants, Fragmite weed, pepper weed-smells like horse hadish- which can adapt very well to salted water.

Arriving at the other side we were able to analyze the abundant life withing the tidal pool. We found more periwinkles as well as tunicates on the rocks and the invasive Asian shore crabs.

After leaving the tidal pool we went to a part of the island where they were many land snails, white-lipped snails and grove snails. Professor Benan asked us if the we anyone thought that these snails have anything to do with the periwinkles and some us said yes, they could be decedents of the periwinkles but further research would be necessary to affirm it. These land snails are very popular in Europe and are found in grassland areas and also wood areas. I understood that they love humidity.

Question#1

What caused the holes on the periwinkles?

After some reading on the web I keep getting mixed information. Some sites did mentioned that blue crab as a predator but what it sounded more convincing to me was the moon snail. The moon snail is one of the top predators of the intertidal environment.

Question#2

Where did the snails we saw at the beach come from?

The oyster-catcher is to blame. They use their bill to firmly hold the shell of the land-snail and with a lot of pressure it crushes the shell feeding on the snail. So I think as the during this process the bird could be flying therefore dropping the empty shell on other parts of the island.

Question#3

What kind of crab were those at the tidal pool?

According to the the MIT website, they are an invasive species native from the western Pacific ocean was introduced to the southern New England shores more than a century ago.

Question#4

What are the differences between the live and dead snail shells?

I thing the difference is mainly the exposure to the weather and where it occurred.

Re-do of the Barking Crab Journal

After reading the students' assignment#1 including my own I found out that what I though was sponges were indeed the invasive tunicate. In regards to my own comments about the Red-eye Amphipod, they could vary in size depending on the growth stage.

See you later,

Mike

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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

Monday, August 3, 2009

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