From Snails to Whales: Striped Bass

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Striped Bass

So I can say without hesitation that in every class I have done something that I have never done before, from simply visiting a Boston Harbor island all the way to finding decades-old china on the sandy shores of Massachusetts. Today, however, I can say without a doubt that I did something that I have neither done before, nor ever planned to do in my entire lifetime. Dissecting a fish was by no means my idea of a good time. It was like watching a train wreck, I couldn’t look away but I was revolted up to the last organ. But having said that, not only do I feel like I conquered a fear of looking at the gooey insides of a dead creature, but I also have a new appreciation for all the hard work that goes into preparing the food that can so easily be bought in a pretty package from a freezer in the supermarket. Now I am a little less squeamish, and a little more inclined to choose a nice dish of pasta over fish and chips any day.

I did take a piece of the striped bass home to try and cook for my dad for dinner because he is a huge fish connoisseur and I know he would appreciate the freshness of a fish caught directly from the ocean in our own backyard. My plan fell through, and the striped bass will have to wait in the fridge until tomorrow night to be feasted on by a family member. However, here is a pretty simple (and delicious-sounding) recipe I plan on using tomorrow night that will be eaten by someone who truly appreciates it: (adopted from the Barefoot Contessa at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/roasted-striped-bass-recipe/index.html) :

•2 tablespoons good olive oil
•1 cup chopped yellow onions
•2 ounces pancetta or bacon, diced
•1 tablespoon chopped garlic
•1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes, drained and diced
•1 teaspoon saffron threads
•1 teaspoon kosher salt
•1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
•1/2 cup dry white wine
•1/4 cup Pernod, optional
•1 (2 to 3-pound) striped bass fillet, skin removed
•2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat the oil in a medium saute pan and saute the onion and pancetta over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the tomatoes, saffron, salt, pepper, white wine, and Pernod, if using, and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, lay the fish in a 10-by-14-inch baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the seafood and bake uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Thanks Bruce!!

Now on to the political side of the striped bass.

I have taken the stance of the commercial Massachusetts fisherman, hoping to have the ban lifted on fishing in federal waters. As of now, under a quote of 1,128,577 pounds and a season spanning July 13th to the fulfillment of the quota, I am angry and feel cheated by the freedom of recreational fishing policies. I cannot keep any fish under 34”, can catch only 30 fish on Tuesdays through Thursdays, and only 5 on Sundays during season. To me, this is barely enough to get by and without access to federal waters, I have to turn to shellfish and lobsters to try and make a living. (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9601383) Unfortunately, since I am restricted to fishing in state waters (<3 miles from the shore) I am missing out on all the bass that are swimming to deeper waters to find food. To add insult to injury, recreational fishermen have access to the bass all year long, can keep any fish longer than 28” and because they bring in big business in recreation for the state, they are allowed to consume thousands more pounds of fish than we are. According to NOAA, in 2009 there were 665,000 recreational fishermen to the measly 1,207 commercial fishermen, yet we continue to be restricted more and more every year. (http://www.wickedlocal.com/harwich/news/x844646213/Bill-seeks-end-to-commercial-striped-bass-fishing). According to one of my fellow commercial fishermen, Darren Saletta, what the recreational fishermen are trying to accomplish with the ban on commercial fishing in federal waters is the “greedy intention of retaining the entire catch.” (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9601383) I want to see the ban lifted so I can start making a living again at what these people do for sport.

Now on to my personal feelings on the matter. This is obviously a very complicated matter, and after reading the plight of the commercial fishermen, I do see why they feel like they got the short end of the stick and think that maybe something could be done to even out the share between the recreational and commercial fishermen. However, coming from an environmental standpoint, I know how fragile ecosystems (and especially the population of popular fish) are in the state of our world right now. And they are not going to get any more stable any time soon unless we enforce some real change. I think that the ban on commercial fishing is a good start, but would like to see the oceans replenish themselves in the long-term, not just the short-term. Does this mean banning all fishing? I’m not an expert on the devices of policy and the balancing of numbers, so I can’t say. I do think that the world is getting increasingly overbearing in policy on the way we take pleasure in life, so banning fishing altogether would take a huge and unfair hit on a portion of the population that enjoys summers doing what humans have done since the beginning of time—fish. But back to commercial fishing in particular, perhaps focusing on replenishing the stock of their food would be a good place to start before considering lifting the ban on fishing in federal waters. If we replenish the population of the menhaden by limiting access by Omega-3 vitamin producers for example, then the commercial fishermen might have less need to even access federal waters. In conclusion, I do feel some sympathy for the commercial fishermen who have likely descended from a long line of fishing families, but I think that times are changing and making a living from fishing might be a dying profession. Unfortunately, due to massive overfishing and a global example of tragedy of the commons, sea life has changed dramatically and I see no long-term benefit from lifting the ban on commercial fishing in federal waters.

-Lydia T

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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

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Striped Bass

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