From Snails to Whales: Observations from Lovell's Island

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Observations from Lovell's Island

Hi Everyone,

Today was our first day getting out to the islands and in doing so we got a look at completely different bio-diverse environment and had all day to explore it. We got right into the tide pools and started to explore. Today I did a lot of things I have not done before - well touched a lot of things I never thought I would. There was so much life in the tide pools and because the environment was so different from the docks at the barking crab the life inside was too. The environment at the barking crab was brackish water and in an urban area - and the tide pools on the island were salt water and more open to the environment with less pollution and people around them.

We went to Lovell's island to do our exploration, although we did also stop at Georges island and Spectacle island just to switch boats and try out Summer Shack (which was also excellent). Lovell's island was beautiful & I cant wait to go back. It was previously used for military purposes and you could see remnants of old buildings and roads, although there are no cars or or buildings in use now. When we got to the beach it was strange to me to see a combination of rocks sea shells and and brick and pavement in the sand - definitely unique.

There were 3 main tide pools that were available to us when we got there. The tide was out and we had plenty of time to spend searching for life in the water. Each tide pool had some unique qualities, as the tide was moving in the pools closest to the beach had the warmest water since they were sitting in the sun longest. The ocean water that was flowing into the outer tide pools made them a bit cooler. The plant life in each of the pools seemed similar except for grass that was growing in only one of them.

Sea Squirt - Squirting

The first things we saw were the crabs - they were moving quickly and large enough to see from a good distance so they were the first thing to catch my eye. There were 3 types of crab that I believe I saw today: asian shore crabs , rock crabs, hermit crabs (I think it was the acadian hermit crab to be exact). We also saw a lot of other plant and animal life: periwinkles , sea squirts - which I found so interesting since they actually squirt water when lifted out of the water, mussels, clams, sea urchin shells, lobster, and tunicate - grey and orange in different areas, this had a hard shell and based on what I learned today contains a jelly substance on the inside, and I found a sea urchin shell but there was nothing alive in it anymore - the shell was very intricate, green and bumpy & it was very delicate and thin.

The periwinkles and crabs were the most common and the sea urchin was the least common since I only saw shells.

Tunicate

After we took everything from the water we broke for lunch and continued our discussion of snails. The periwinkles located throughout the water are a form of sea snail, but as we spread out for lunch someone discovered that there were also land snails on the edges of the beach area toward the trees. These snails seemed completely different to me in so many ways but in order to really find the ways they are different. My theory on how a group of these shells arrived on the rock at the beach is that some other predator - maybe a bird eat the snails and left the shells there on the beach. I did my research at home on how the snails were different and I asked some more science savvy friends of mine as well. The consensus was that the major difference is how they breathe. The appearance of the snails was also different - the land snail come further out of its shell and had longer antenna on its head. They also were more firm than the sea snails but the major difference was the breathing sea snails can breathe in the water and the land snails breathe in the air.

I have identified the land snails I saw as the white lipped snail also referred to as the helix albolabris as it is called in the Land Snails of New England document on the blackboard.

Then we were also asked the question of why some shells have a perfect circular hole in them. In the past I have seen these at the beach and the first time I saw them I thought that maybe there where shells people were making necklaces with that they threw back - obviously not the case - so this challenge was very interesting to me. The wholes are created from predators that are hunting the animals inside the shells. In Massachusetts this is most likely whelks.

See you all on Wednesday for some more exploration!
Katie Concannon

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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

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Observations from Lovell's Island

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