From Snails to Whales: September 2012

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Yoga, lunch, music, dance, blackberries, beach, and rain

Saturday July 28, 2012

We came across a beautiful bride who got stuck by rain. Later they got her an umbrella and she rushed away.

As the ferry landed at the Massachusetts Bay Lines dock, my Turkish friend and I rushed through out the crowd trying to get into a nearby shelter from the falling heavy drops of rain. We were coming back from Spectacle Island where we had lunch on professor Bruce's house-boat, "Verandah" and walked along the whole beach of the Island. We had blackberries we picked from the trees on the Island and we enjoyed watching people dance on the music played by the band professor Bruce hired to entertain people who came to spend the weekend on such a beautiful Island that once upon time used to be a trash dump.

Our trip started at 10:30 a.m. as we got on the train towards Long Wharf. In the middle of our trip, the train driver announced that we had to move into another train since the train we were on had a problem. The system here always surprises me. They are so quick in fixing things and finding other alternatives to keep the wheel moving. In Yemen, it takes forever to fix a thing. That's why Yemenis are so patient that they resign to the tough conditions of living. Anyway, as we arrived to the dock, we got our tickets and boarded on the boat. I got used to sailing without getting seasick. My first trip on a boat to Cape Cod was a disaster but after that trip, I enjoyed all my other trips on the sea. Once we got our feet on Spectacle Island, we took some pictures and started searching for fun. People were all around: some on the beach, others on their boats, and many other visitors were just walking up the drumlin summit.

My friend after the Yoga class

It was such a wonderful weather. We joined people who were practicing Yoga. To tell the truth, I never thought Yoga is that difficult. It really needs a lot of effort to perform those slow motion postures. Well, it was a great experience, though. After Yoga, the Island seemed to be more lively. People started dancing on the rhythm of the music playing by the band on the boat. Those people really know how to have fun. We also dance, but only men would dance in public. As for women in my country, they show their talent in wedding parties before other women. Dancing, singing, and even drawing are considered to be forbidden by some Islamist clergies especially when they are done by a woman. They say God is beauty and he loves beauty. Nonetheless, they say these forms of art are forbidden. They must have Schizophrenia, I guess. I guess those clergies would say enjoying watching people dancing is forbidden as well. Well, I committed a sin and enjoyed the show.

Tt's lunch time. Thanks God we're invited for lunch on Verandah. That would save us some green papers. Thanks to Professor Bruce for the delicious food he prepared. Wait, I thought he would offer some fresh fish but we got chicken and beef instead. The food was so tasty that I forgot all about the thought of fresh fish. Living in a house boat seems to be interesting. I love nature. The sea always haunts me with its endless wavy blue carpet. It's another world that's hiding a lot deep inside.

Those people never get tired of dancing. We stopped for a while before having our walk all around the Island. We came across some trees of blackberries. My friend picked us some. They were very tasty. She made me a necklace from some pinned leaves. That reminded me of the old days when I used to go to my village and pick up flowers from the mountains. I would make necklaces and bracelets with those flowers for my cousins and I. Those were the days.

It's just amazing to sit and look

As we came to the other side of the Island, people had started moving to the dock and getting ready to board on the boats. We were supposed to wait until the 6 o'clock ferry, but luckily professor Bruce could get us on another that was just leaving. As we got on board, it started raining. It was cool. The day was coming to an end and the people looked so happy. We knew that we are going to get wet since we didn't bring our umbrellas. Yet, it wasn't a big deal. We rushed into the crowd of people and made our way to the train station but as we did, we came across a beautiful bride who got stuck by the rain. Later they got her an umbrella and she rushed away. I couldn't miss shooting her with my camera while she did so. That was something so beautiful to end the day with. To see a bride is definitely much better than coming across, let say, a crow. As we got to the train station I noticed a man playing music and in front of him there was a box and a poster says: "GREECE BAILOUT FUND". That was so funny at least to me and something worthy to shoot. When we arrived home, we were wet, tired and happy.

" Spectacle Island: From a Trash Dump to a National Treasure

  "It's trash!" I said while watching professor Bruce discussing with his students about the

artifacts they've found on the Beach of Spectacle Island. He was calling these artifacts “TREASURE”.  I think the word “trash” got him mad because he seriously looked me in the eye and made it aloud enough to hear every single syllable of the four English words he uttered. “IT IS A TREASURE.”

  In a couple of minutes, he gave me a lecture on how this Island become a national park and how many decades it took for these seaglass and artificats to become a national treasure. A treasure that's meant for decorating Spectacle Island Beach and for visitors to enjoy while on land. I came to know you cannot take any piece with you home.   One cannot believe that such a beautiful Island used to be a trash dump. Once determination set, man can bring life back to nature. I have seen many beautiful things on this Island. I’ve even tasted the wild blackberries growing on its drumlin summit. They were very delicious. “How could an Island that was covered and built up by dirt produce such tasty blackberries?” I thought.   

Very tasty

I found many artifacts and interesting seaglass. Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky enough to get a blue marble. Yet, what I learnt about this Island was much valued to me. To set one’s goals and find out what is the best way to implement the ideas into actions. One can learn from others and try to figure out other ways on other lands that can bring back life to people and nature. I found the spirits of people who had a mission to make a difference walking along with me on the Spectacle Island beach and whispering into my ear, “God is beauty and He loves beauty.”

  --Arwa"

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, September 18, 2012

Yoga, lunch, music, dance, blackberries, beach, and rain

" Spectacle Island: From a Trash Dump to a National Treasure

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