From Snails to Whales: A side of Boston I had never seen

Monday, July 23, 2012

A side of Boston I had never seen

It was a hot morning when we set off on a journey to Peddock's island via the harbor cruise shuttle. One interesting thing that started our day was when Professor Berman pointed out the large flock of seagulls milling about over a patch of water out in the middle of the harbor. He noted that it must be because they were hunting the striped bass that was swimming just below the surface, and that it is a great sign that the striped bass were back the waters of Boston.Our class was virtually the only ones on the island when we arrived, aside from the sea creatures we were to soon encounter. We made our way on a path on the left side of the island, past the buildings that were used as protection from the Nazi's as well as prisons for POWs at the turn of the nineteenth century. We eventually came to a very vast beach that contained many different kinds of terrains and animals. Our class first started our walk along the beach on a very pebbly beach as the tide was going down. Their were many small rocks, of all shapes and colors as well as many empty shells of periwinkles, of all different sizes. we had yet to encounter a living periwinkle. As we headed down the beach, further and further away from the dock we had arrived on, the pebbles seemed to turn into larger rocks, and the shells began to disappear closer to the oceans edge.

A few people in the class started to see living creatures other then seaweed, such as the Asian shore crab, which is an invasive species of crabs that we found hides under large rocks and trying to escape our cameras as they fled to the ocean. About half way to our lunch spot, we came upon a deceased horseshoe crab, which Professor Berman had suggested was caught and then discarded by a fisherman. Nevertheless, it looked like it had started to be eaten by various beach dwelling animals such as the two crabs we found near the dead horseshoe crab. this provides us with an example of the negative side of fishing in the Boston Harbor, but I left the horseshoe crab in high hopes that another animal would get a nice meal out of him. You have to take the good with the bad, right?

Once we got to our destination where we would each lunch, we got a chance to explore a little bit of the island for ourselves. Hidden away behind the beach and the tall grass, was a almost completely dried up salt marsh. Although it has almost dried up all the way due to the lack of rain we had had in Boston, I still witnessed some sea life from within the marsh's water. When I crouched down to get a better view, I immediately came across two crabs that were hidden within the mud. I believe these crabs could have possibly been fiddler crabs, or maybe some more Asian shore crabs that found their way to the protection of the mud. When I walked around the marsh some more, I saw even more crabs. Careful not to sink neck deep into the mud, I also saw some small fish swimming even deeper in the water. I spent some of the boat ride back wondering when it would rain, so that those small fish and crabs would continue to have a salt marsh to call home. As we walked back, with a new perspective on what was underneath rocks and near the edge of the water, the class spread out and found some live periwinkles because the tide was going out. we also found a tide pool with creatures such as barnacles, periwinkles and more Asian shore crabs that were underneath a large rock. And we even held the crabs! I must admit I was sure it was going to pinch me, but I couldn't pass up the chance to hold one.

We made our way to George's Island where we waited for the boat back to the Boston waterfront. I went over in my head what I had seen, touched, explored and learned on Peddock's island, and it was much more then I bargained for. But also, it was much more then I would have learned from reading a book or googling the facts. I have lived in Boston my entire twenty years of living and have never explored the harbor islands (or underneath the docks) in any of those years. I eagerly look forward to what we will explore and learn next.

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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, July 23, 2012

A side of Boston I had never seen

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