Monday, July 25, 2011

Georges and Lovell's Island

On Sunday, July 24, 2011 we took a field trip to Georges and Lovell’s Island. Weather was cloudy at 8:30 AM with light drizzling. We were on-board by 9:00 AM, so we can reach the tidal pool at Lovell’s Island for low tide at about 12:30 PM. At first we stopped at Gorges Island d and explored the Fort Warren which was built in 1850 as a Civil War fort that was also utilized as a prison for Confederate military and political prisoners. One of the rangers narrated the tragic story of “the lady in black” who haunts the Inside “Corridor of Dungeons” where her ghost has appeared over the years. However, I was about to faint in the darkness of that damp corridor, it was horrifying. Furthermore, we the outskirts of the neighboring Islands from the top of the fort, as well as Boston Light House.

Rocky Shore Habitats

Later on our class and some other passengers took the Water Taxi to Lovell’s Island. After our brief meeting with the ranger we followed the dirt trail to the beach to find, identify and observe different animal and plant species; which were there in abundance. First, professor mentioned the “wrack line” which is the top of the tide line and it usually brings dried brownish poppy sea weed, empty slipper and periwinkle shells, crab legs, blue mussels, and Sea Lichen Bryozoans. We had a little discussion how native species such as periwinkles and humans have impacted, rather changed the habitat from a sandy beach to a rocky and cobble stone one. The organisms which attach themselves to stones find this type of rocky shore to be their home. The average tidal exchange in Boston is 9.5 feet (3 m). The habitat we examined were Tide pools, pools of water left in rocky crevices and depressions down to the water line.

Observing Isopods (Green, Asian Shore, Hermit and Atlantic Rock Crab, Scud)

Moving forward into the tidal pools we found Green crab under the rock almost 3.6” long, fan shaped with blackish mottling above, with 5 marginal teeth. Green crabs were introduced from Europe and lives in tide pools and brackish water. We also managed to find Asian shore crabs which were much more aggressive in behavior, because they shed their skin at random times throughout the year, while displacing the other exposed crabs. They were blackish with banded legs, and red spots on claws, 3 marginal teeth and almost 1 in long. They were introduced from Asia and prefer rocks, cobble and live in intertidal zones. I also found a Hermit crab which was hiding under the periwinkle shell almost half an inch long. Which was brown to grayish in color, pincers were tannish-gray with white edges. It was long, and soft with segmented body. These Hermit crabs are common in Atlantic waters. Of all the miniature crabs we found a bigger one which was almost 5.5” wide and 3.5” long. It resembles the description of Atlantic Rock crab in the guide book with upper side yellow and dotted with reddish spots. Pincers were stout, short, fingers bent downward, black at tips, walking legs short and hairy at edges. This kind of crabs lives in low tide line. One of our classmates also found a shrimp like tiny specie which matched the characteristics of a Scud in our guide book. It was 1” long and ¼” tall. It was arched, brownish in color with pairs of long antennae, back smooth and segmented. This creature lives among seaweeds above low-tide line and feeds on mostly worms.

Observing Mollusks (Common Periwinkle)

The specie that is a native and has hugely impacted the shore slowly yet steadily are periwinkles (Littorina saxatilis) these are grayish, or brown with spiral nearly oval in shape. The surface is smooth to touch. It lives in intertidal zone, rocky and mud flats and feeds on alga. It is usually 1.7” in length but there could also be bigger periwinkles. They are invasive species introduced from Europe.

Northern Rock Barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides)

These were attached on the rocks in colonial pattern; I saw both white and yellowish barnacles which were flat at top but rough to touch. These are most commonly found in New England in intertidal zone they are up to 1 in” in width. They are also native species came from northern Atlantic to Delaware, and are in abundance in New England.

Kelp, Brown Seaweed, Enteromorpha , Sea Lichen Bryozoan:

Kelp is found in Sub-tidal zone. It was brownish in color. Kelps can range in size from the two-foot-tall to the giant kelp, which grows to over 150 ft long. They are an important constituent of some brackish water ecosystems. The brown leathery kelps and seaweeds were the most common fauna and flora found on the shore. Only next to green string lettuce with thin tabular strands, lime greenish in color, and very slippery algae which covered the rocks. Enteromorpha is common in the intertidal zone. I also found a colony of sea lichen bryozoans which was straw colored. The texture was rough and bushy, shaped like a ribbon on the edges, yet flexible. It was 1.5” long and 1” wide. It usually resides in low-tide line and widely found in New England.

Then after the lunch break we decided to search some land snails so that we can differentiate between the water and land snails. The first one we spotted on the tree was Yellow White- Lipped snail which was slightly smaller than the Grove or Brown-Lipped snail. The shell is usually 1” in dimension and shell has color banding of yellow and black, while it is brown and black for grove snail. The two species share many of the same habitats, such as woods, dunes and grassland, but the white-lipped snail tolerates wetter and colder areas than the grove snail can.

This is the end of my observations that I did at the Lovell’s island and also learnt that if I took the snail home I would need calcium for it to survive. On our way back, me and Janelle swam in the chilly Boston Harbor, until we saw our boat coming and quickly ran out of the water. It was a good learning experience over all.

P.S I am posting the pictures separate i think it is much easier that way

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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.”