From Snails to Whales: Day 5: Whale Watching!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Day 5: Whale Watching!

Pictures By: Janelle Bean

Event: ES141 Whale Watch

Departure from: Boston Harbor Long Wharf

*I apologize that the pictures are so small, there were a lot of them so this was the easiest way to get them up. This isn't even all the pictures either! If you click on them you should get a new tab with a closer view :)

**While scanning through the pictures take note of the different tail fins and the difference in some of the exposed dorsal fins as well. One for example you can tell is the dorsal fin of an older whale, because up close you can see the fin has some scratches, perhaps caused by something like a passing boat? Either way enjoy!

I had a great time experiencing the whale watch with my fellow classmates Thursday. I had been whale watching before, off the coast of Newburyport I believe, but each time is different. Some of the highlights of our class whale watching trip were....

- The whales turning in the water and showing it's fin.

- The three whales together (apparently a rare occurrence for these loners).

- The whales breaching!

Out of all these I would have to say that seeing the whales breaching was easily my favorite part of the experience. I felt like I was 6 years old and watching Free Willy all over again. It was one of those moments that makes you realize just how majestic these creatures are... I guess that ties in to why I feel they shouldn't be hunted. There's just something about whales that makes me more empathetic toward them. It could be that we're both mammals and therefore closer related in the web of life. In a way it makes sense, after all it does mean that we are similar in the way we both carry our children, give birth to them and then take care of them until they are old enough to survive on their own. In this way it makes them seem more humane and thus more like humans. Whales are also smart creatures. As Professor Berman mentioned in class, you can communicate with a whale in the way that you can understand what they are feeling at times through their eyes and their behavior. Just the other day, there was an excerpt on the news about how whale watchers had found a humpback whale which they initially thought to be dead. That was until after a forceful rush of air from it's blow hole. At that point one of the men went in the water to see what was wrong. They soon discovered the whole whale was tied down in nylon fishing lines. It's pectoral fins were held down to it's side and the tail of the creature was also entangled and held down. Trapped, tangled and dying, the whale continued to toss and turn while the kind men tried to cut the ropes. The whale decided to try and swim away and tugged the boat about a half mile before finally tiring out. Once the whale had stopped the men quickly continued to cut the ropes off. This process repeated a few more times before they successfully untangled the whale. The whale was so excited that it rushed off and breached at least 40 times while in view of the men and they say that the tail of the whale flapped a few times on it's final dive, as if waving good bye to the men. The rescuers will tell you that the whale was putting on a show for them out of pure liberating excitement, if not gratitude. Whether that is truly what the whale meant we will never know, but it does suggest that the whale was trying to communicate some message, whatever it may have been. The link to the webpage on the news is below, and underneath it is also the specific youtube video link by The Great Whale Conservancy on the story through the whale watchers personal footage. It's a great story and I recommend those of you who have 10 min. to spare to watch the video.

Webpage article on story:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/dramatic-footage-three-men-rescue-humpback-whale-off-california-coast/

Youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXU7G6zhjU&feature=player_embedded

As a result of miracle stories like the one mentioned above and the beauty and maternal instincts of these animals~along with the fact that I highly doubt we would be able to control the fishermen and whale-hunters if we ever did allow the public to hunt these creatures~I feel it is wrong to hunt them and believe they should be protected.

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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

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Day 5: Whale Watching!

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