From Snails to Whales: more cushin for the pushin

Friday, August 7, 2009

more cushin for the pushin

Good evening. Man I am beat. This class has really put these old bones through the wringer. Who knew it would be so physically draining yet so intellectually fulfilling! I spent the rest of my day today wandering the harbour and rewalking our day one trip. This time ending up at the ICA for free admission Thursday..followed by a stellar meal at the Barking Crab. I had a perfect vantage point of the dock where Dave, Alexandra and I went feeling around in the murky depths...but I digress...

Today began with us meeting at the State House in downtown Boston to bear witness to Bruce testifying on behalf of Lesser Brewster Island and its endangered and voiceless inhabitants. We were able to hear him reiterate the lessons he has tried to impart on us, as well as learn that there are allies in politics, people who do care about not only governing the people, but making sure the people have a safe and healthy place to live and play.

After the hearing, we beat a hasty retreat back to Long Wharf for one last hoorah. Today's trip: a whale watching cruise out to Stellwagen Bank, a national marine sanctuary situated outside of the Boston harbour that literally stretches the distance between Cape Ann and Provincetown...the entire opening into the Boston harbour is a marine sanctuary. How cool is that! The door to Boston is a rich and fertile feeding ground for some of the worlds most rare and endangered whales. Can we just take a moment to let the gravity of that sink in. Stellwagen Bank is home to Humpback, Minke, Fin, North Atlantic Right Whales, and White-Sided Dolphins. While some of these animals have made a comeback in recent years, the Right whale is still struggling to keep its name off the extinction list.

As excited as I was at the prospect of laying eyes on a near depleted species of whale, I would have been content with anything! Anything but a sleeping humpback whale for 20+ minutes...

The photo above illustrates the way in which a humpback whale sleeps. It is quite fascinating that these whales are 'conscious breathers' which basically means that they must think in order to breathe...kind of like that time you may have had too much to drink and you had to keep reminding yourself to breathe...you know who you are...but instead of an inner monologue and a restless night, the humpback whale is able to shut off part of its brain and use the other part just to breathe. The whale will switch on and off various parts of its brain in order to continue breathing AND sleeping at the same time. Kind of like when sitting in a boring lecture...you know you have tried it.

After 20 minutes of waiting for this whale to wake up, Bruce pointing out some spouts he saw in the distance, the boat crew finally decide it is time to try and find some more....interesting subjects to observe.

It did not take long for us to come upon another humpback whale, this guy was considered to be a juvenile, estimated to be about 1-2 years old. He was quite the star of the day! He pretty much spent the entire rest of our stay on the bank breaching (the act of throwing their bodies out of the water almost 2/3 of the way out and splashing down), doing fin waves and being all around cute! It is not yet understood why whales are so animated at times. doing tail and fin flips seem to only please the crowd, but it is theorized that their actions may have a variety of meanings, such as communication, personal grooming, and may even be a part of the courtship/mating ritual. Take a moment to enjoy this photographic interlude:

You will notice that the fins are almost completely white! Incredible! Each whale has distinctive markings that are used to tell them all apart. Like a fingerprint or a sassy new haircut...each whale is identifiable.

These large and beautiful creatures can live longer than any of us can imagine. Even though their life span is not completely known, there has been evidence of a whale surviving for over 100 years. A pretty epic feat in a rapidly dwindling ocean....due to environmental changes and human impact...Humpback whales can grow to be over 50ft in length and weigh upwards of 40tons, these creatures need room to move! Considering that the depth of Stellwagen Bank is roughly 100ft in depth, it takes little to no effort for one of these animals to dive to the bottom and up, no more effort than it takes a person to walk a few steps. I am still amazed at how massive yet graceful they are! I feel so incredibly fortunate for today and this entire week. Thank you all for being a part of my memories and my education!

PS. would/should i eat whale?

This is a hard question to answer....while I consider myself to be a bit of an epicurean explorer..I also understand that not everything exotic should be treated as food. Regardless of what we think a 'strong number' population there exists, we do not fully know the impact overwhaling could have on our environment...already I am quite conscious of the fish I put on my plate due to the overfishing of our waters...Do I want to start eating something that I could possibly bear witness to its removal from this planet....no I do not think I would like to see any more animals disappear due to gluttonous consumption.

link to ALL the photos I took today. Feel free to download them and use them for yourself :)

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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

Friday, August 7, 2009

more cushin for the pushin

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