From Snails to Whales: The Barking Crab- continued!

Monday, August 2, 2010

The Barking Crab- continued!

Sea creature #4 is one of two organisms I saw today that I have tasted. It had two symmetrical shells joined by a hinge on the curved side and stuck together, presumably by a substance produced by the organism within, on the other side. One end of the shells came to a point, and the other was more rounded. The outer surfaces of the shells were black with brownish striations along the length and slightly raised ribs following the curve of the shell. Some of the creatures were dead, and the insides of the open, empty shells were shiny and light-colored.
Hypothesis: Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis).

The Orange Thing: Prof. Berman found a rock with an interesting growth that looked like orange flowers with 8-12 petals. They were bright orange.
Hypothesis: The closest thing I could find in the Audubon guide that exists on our coast is the golden star tunicate (Botryllus schlosseri); however, the petal-like sections were not outlined in yellow or white. The organism was more similar to the Pacific star tunicate (Botryllus tuberatus).

Sea plant #1 is the second of two organisms I saw today that I have tasted. I don’t recall what it tasted like, but I know I ate some of this stuff when I was little and considered the dollar bill my brother offered me a fortune. We first observed the plant in the intertidal zone at Long Wharf, and again attached to the floats at the Barking Crab. The end attached to the float was flat and dark olive green. It branched several times and terminated in lighter green, air (or some sort of gas) filled sacs or pods. The surfaces of the pods and what I’ll call leaves or branches were covered with raised bumps.
Hypothesis: Rockweed (Fucus vesiculosis).

Sea plant #2 consisted of flat, broad membrane-like leaves. It was bright green and surprisingly transparent. It looked a lot like an aquatic version of lettuce, but the leaves were slick. The specimen I observed was about six inches long and two and a half inches wide. It was more resistant to tearing than I expected, given how thin it was.
Hypothesis: Sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca). According to Encyclopedia Brittanica (the online version), sea lettuce is two cells thick and embedded in a tough gelatinous sheath, which explains the transparency, the slickness and the toughness of the seaweed. I also observed a red seaweed very similar to it but more slimy. At first I thought it was a variation of the same species, but after reading the Hitchhikers Guide I think it is red alga (Grateloupia turuturu).

Sea plant #3 was found both in the intertidal zone at Long Wharf (both on the rocks of the wall and in the water) and attached to the floats at the Barking crab. Like Sea plant #2, it was bright green, but the similarities end there. This plant consisted of many very fine strands several inches long.
Hypothesis: Blidingia minima (couldn’t find a common name). According the NPS, B. minima is found in the high intertidal zone on the shoreline and most of the islands of Boston Harbor.

Hypothesis regarding the seawall behind the IMAX: If the surrounding tall buildings were removed, rockweed and Blidingia minima would gradually become more prevalent and the species composition on the rock wall would eventually resemble that of the wall at Long Wharf. In the shade, the barnacles we saw behind the IMAX out-compete the relatively shade-intolerant seaweeds for space. However, if sun exposure increased, the seaweeds would probably quickly colonize gaps left by barnacles.

Hypotheses regarding seaweed order on the wall at Long Wharf: The top layer of the wall was bare rock (probably too little time in the water for seaweed and barnacles to survive, since this would only be submerged at the highest tides); the second layer was mostly Blidingia minima (with enough time in the water to survive dry periods at low tide, and shallow enough to get enough sun to require/support production of that much chlorophyll), then a mix of rockweed (which can probably survive with less sunlight than B. minima) and barnacles (since I saw behind the IMAX that these can survive at depths as shallow as those at which B. minima was dominant at Long Wharf, I’m guessing these were just outcompeted by B. minima in the shallower zone but not by rockweed in the deeper intertidal zone).

My pictures and drawings will be attached with my post on Lovell's island- technical issues!

Alissa Frame

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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 2, 2010

The Barking Crab- continued!

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