From Snails to Whales: One if by land, two if by sea, three if by... tree?

Friday, July 27, 2012

One if by land, two if by sea, three if by... tree?

Lovell's Island was an interesting place, it reminded me of my early childhood when we used to go search for crabs in the tide pools on the cape beaches and build sand castles for them. To start the day off yesterday we met at Starbucks at our usual time of 8:30a, from there we proceeded to board a boat to George's Island at 9:00a. Once we got to George's Island we came to realize that our boat was cancelled, so Professor Berman set us up with another boat, Abigail, from the DCR. They were so graciously willing to take us over to Lovell's Island. During the twenty minute layover we had, we decided to explore the fort, and take a look at the "nude beaches" on the backside of Lovell's.

Once we arrived to Lovell's Island we quickly realized it was a sandy beach, different from the beach types we noticed at Peddock's Island. As we walked the wrack line down the beach we began to see many periwinkles and hermit crabs shells washed up, as well as muscles, oysters, slipper shells, and crab limbs. From this point we decided to get away from the wracklines and search the tidepools. In the tidepools we found many live periwinkles as well at hermit crabs. Both of these animals were non existent on the docks, and were not as common on Peddocks.

In these pictures here we can see some examples of both smooth periwinkles and rough periwinkles. We saw both of these on the rocks. When we pulled them out and put them on our hand, they took about 20 seconds before they would stick and come back out of their shell as long as we stayed very still. In these rock bed tide pools we also saw many different types of sea weed, rock weed, sea lettuce, and others that were able to stay there because of how moist the environment stays. As shown below we had a number of interesting types of seaweed.

Seaweed was not the only thing that we found in the rocks, we also had green crabs, and the rise of the tunicates again. These tunicates were sitting on the underside of rocks in order to constantly be wet as such they may survive. Unlike the dock environment however we did not see them all over everything. They were clustered in small areas and there was a much smaller percentage of them.

As we ventured back up the beach we looked at a rock an noticed a number of broken shells that looked very different from the ones that were in habited by the periwinkles. They were brighter in color, thiner, lighter, and had a more defined spiral. When we walked into the woods we found one of these snails up on a tree.

when looking closer at the shells that were left on the rocks we can see that they have a brown ring around the edge of the shells. Based on this color, and some research I have come to the conclusion that they are, brown lipped tree snails. These snails had a much brighter and tanner color then the periwinkles, and they also did not have a trap door to protect them from the elements.

These shells I believe ended up on the rocks in a similar way that the oyster shells we have seen ended up on the rocks, I believe they were dropped there by the small black birds that we saw and heard chirping in the trees. They most likely dropped them there in hopes to crack the shell and get the snail out of them for dinner. These snails sit on the underside of leaves for two reasons, first to protect themselves from the direct rays of the sun, and second to protect from predators. If you are an easy target then you will surely be lunch.

I hope everyone had as much fun at Lovell's as I did, and I look forward to gutting some stripped bass in class today.

Trevor O'Leary

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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

Friday, July 27, 2012

One if by land, two if by sea, three if by... tree?

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