From Snails to Whales: Look at that "S" car go!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Look at that "S" car go!

Nothing like a bad pun to a joke I can't even remember to start your day with!

August 2, 2009
10.30a -3.30p
Lovell's Island, Boston
Overcast
75F
Slightly breezy

ASSIGNMENT 1
The first stop on our tour was a gravely beach with a small central patch of sand. This type of beach is known as a 'cobble beach'. Asked to search within the rocks of the last high tide swash, we found the discarded shells of the 'common periwinkle', blue mussel, and what I believe to be either the 'eastern white slipper snail' or the 'common Atlantic slipper snail'. Their size, shape, colour and location are both quite similar, unfortunately my rudimentary drawing and lack of sample or photo preclude me from a deeper identification.

After our seashell hunt, we were asked to find a periwinkle shell with a hole drilled into it, I was unable to do so, but I did manage to look at some that other members of our group located. After looking for an answer as to how these little holes were bored through such a tough shell, I believe that the culprit may be the 'green crab', based on an article written for the Northeastern Naturalist that states:

The green crab (Carcinus maenus), an introduced species originally from Europe, has been common in New England for a century or more (Bertness 1999). It occurs in almost all intertidal habitats in Boston Harbor, from mudflats to salt marsh to rocky tide pools and is a major predator on small “seed” clams and periwinkle snails. (source)

Our next task was the finding of a live periwinkle snail in the midst of all the rocks....harder than it sounded. Unearthing (unwatering?) the snails was a difficult task due to their inherent ability to blend in. I found that instead of looking for pebbles that could be snails, look for pebbles that are housing snails. Jackpot!

I named this little guy Herbie! The rock I found him on was just a shade bigger than he was! SO CUTE!

Anyway...Herbie has two antennae and a little flap that covers his aperture when he isn't out feeding. This also protects him from drying out should he get caught when low tide rolls in (out). Herbie likes to snack on the algae that grows on the beach and rocks, good for Herbie, bad for the beach. It is believed that Herbie and his friends are a major force in the 'altering' of the beach face....and not for the better. BAD HERBIE!

From our cobble beach we hiked over to a rocky clearing for a much needed lunch break! Of course, there is no rest for the weary, and Bruce called us all over to examine a find of discarded shells that did not look like they belonged on the beach.

Our mission...identify them! I have come to the conclusion that the shells are that of the grove snail or brown-lipped snail. The markings and size are in line with that of the grove snail, along with the distinctive 'brown-lip' around the base and opening of the shell. Hey...this science thing is quite intuitive!

After lunch we walked through a former salt marsh that is now overrun by phragmites and pepper weed. We used this new pathway to gain access to a tide pool where we snuck up on some birds! An array of gulls, sand pipers and oyster catchers were waiting for the ebbing tide so they could take advantage of the bounty the retreating seas would expose!

After giving the birds a wide berth, we proceeded to wade in the water looking for green crabs and attempt to catch some...scary right? Well this is how its done...

Props to Alexandra for catching the crab and Han for modeling the crab! This little guy, Gaston, only had one pincer claw and was missing a few of his legs...methinks he may have been prey to the birds we saw! Lucky to have rescued him, or sad that an invasive species did not get eaten? YOU DECIDE!

It was difficult to observe much in the tide pool since the water was still fairly high. We took that as a sign to explore the island further. We hiked along the paths and found an abundance of wild blackberry brambles! Not at all ripe yet, but we were able to find the odd berry ready for the picking

DELISH!

Thinking we were just taking a leisurely stroll through the woods, we were greeted with a hello from our old friend the brown-lipped snail! Bruce triumphantly displayed the find and then instructed us all to find them....

Now...there is a big difference between sifting through rocks and picking up shells, but we now have to essentially become birds of prey and seek out an animal designed to camouflage... apparently it is easier than I thought. Within moments I had spotted one clinging on to a dying leaf!

Notice how yellow Buddy is (that is his name, I asked him)...I was able to spot him through all the brown and green due to his garish colouring. You can also notice that the leaves around Buddy are all eaten, looks like he was a hungry boy!

We continued on collecting snails and shells as best as possible, taking a detour through an old fort made of concrete. Bruce mentioned that some snails liked to live in the calcium deposits leeching out of the mortar. I was able to spot a lot of the brown-lipped snails just hanging out in the nooks and crannies in the place.

I think we did okay considering this was our first snail hunting expedition!

Finally we had a choice, wander back to the tide pools, which at this point were at ideal low tide viewing, or someplace else...which I didn't even hear Bruce suggest because I was too excited about the prospect of returning to the tide pool...

When we got to the water, the landscape had changed drastically. Now there were more exposed rocks, small standing pools of water nestled in natural rock enclosures. Hundreds upon hundreds of periwinkles exposed and left clinging to rocks. It was literally as though the sea retreated exposing the underbelly of the ocean! Amazing!

Not content with what was just left on the surface, some of us schlepped into the water to see what we could find below the surface and below the rocks!

First attempt at overturning a rock proved to be quite abundant with life! There were several sea quirts attached to the rock, which, when used strategically can hit a person at 10 paces! There was also a tiny lobster under the rock...that got away...This discovery only fueled our resolve to find and catch one of these aggressive crustaceans. Wait. Did I just say aggressive? And did I also say I wanted to catch one?? Well..lets just say that after a couple of attempts to nab a lobster who is bent on fighting back, we were indeed successful in catching one! It was a smallish lobster with a soft shell, so I was reluctant to manhandle it too much. Hubert seemed to be in good enough spirits when we let him go. I think he enjoyed his time in the limelight.

That really concluded our field work right there. An exciting end to an exciting day!

Observed animals of note:

Periwinkles one pair antennae
Green crabs are non-native but eat the periwinkles
Brown-lipped snails two pair antennae
Lobster
Sea Squirt
Oyster Catcher
Sandpiper

Thanks again for an exciting day!

ASSIGNMENT 2
How did the land snails end up on the sea shore...

Well...At the end of the day I noticed a small grey bird foraging in the underbrush by the pavilion. I took note of its size, colour, beak and tail. I spoke to the friend of snails lady (name totally escapes me) and between us determined that it may be a catbird. When I came home I consulted my Sibley Field Guide To Birds of Eastern North America (what...you don't own one??) and it confirmed our suspicions. This type of bird likes to forage on the forest floor and eats insects and occasionally frogs and other types of smallish animals. I believe that this bird may have been responsible for the consumption and transportation of the land snail to the sea area.

ASSIGNMENT 3
The distribution of colour within the live snails looks a bit skewed. There seems to be more brownish shells and shells with thicker bands which leads me to believe that the brown is a better blender in this wooded environment.

That being said, when examining the empty snail shells, the distribution of colours seemed fairly even between light and dark shells.

Maybe the lighter ones did blend in more so we were unable to pick them out of the trees. Maybe the brown shells are older than the lighter ones. Maybe the snails have already begun breeding so their shells are darker and now the majority of the dead ones are going to be brown because of such. Based on the small sample it is difficult to determine what the correlation between shell colour and living/dead distribution is.

ASSIGNMENT 4
I re-read everyone's blog posts from our Saturday excursion, and I am pleased to see a coroborating guess to my thoughts on this plant:

I thought it to be Grinnell's Pink Leaf, but was not too sure. As far as other observations, I am still not quite sure about a lot of the organisms, but Bruce did mention the Colonial Tunicate (Metandrocarpa taylori). So I did some looking and I found one referred to as the 'orange social sea squirt' which strongly resembled the orangy organisms found on the side of the Barking Crab docks. The only solution to this problem...revisit the Barking Crab, grab a nosh, and reobserve the findings!

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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

Look at that "S" car go!

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