From Snails to Whales: Terry Baurley Dock Investigations

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Terry Baurley Dock Investigations

Sometimes it takes time and keen observation to notice changes within an environment, with the powers of observation when looking very closely things that your expect to see might not be there and things that should be there are not. As a species when humans interact with their environment it is sometimes easy to miss the consequences of actions and interactions. Our harbors, oceans and rivers not only are challenged by pollution and the effects of pesticides and chemicals. But also a more significant threat to native species is intentional or unintentional species that are introduced from other parts of the world into an eco system that has no counterbalance ability. The problem becomes when we introduce something that’s not native to environment if there is no natural predator that will keep the population in check or a specific series of weather conditions soil or climate that my control the species we risk the possibility of wiping out native species. The similar analogy would be when Europeans first arrived in the New World and brought diseases that there was no immunity for that wiped out a significant portion of the Native American population.

Part of the problem exists because consequences cannot be foreseen. Having spent a significant portion of time on freshwater rivers and lakes you become a very aware of changes within the environment and how things change from year to year decade to decade and century to century. The invasive species that I am most familiar with in freshwater is milfoil, that the freshwater lakes and rivers there’s been a tremendous effort in the past several years to educate, control and eradicate the spread of this non-native species there was introduced into our eco system in New England. The reason that milfoil is so deadly is that it grows rapidly depletes all the oxygen from the environment and there are tremendous fish kills because it. Part of how this happens is by organism and a plant hitchhiking rides on boats and ships and are carried to new environments. Another example of an invasive species is Asian carp in the Great Lakes the problem is becoming so prevalent that native species of fish that have survived centuries are struggling to adapt to a new threat.

One of the things that we saw today that I wasn’t expecting was invasive species, I had been aware of the green crab having been introduced into the environment and how the nat. But was unaware of the extent of the problem within the ocean and harbors, What I realized today is that what we saw yesterday at the boat slip and today at the two different docs that we visited with that things have changed their no invasive species inhabiting Boston harbor the extent of the problem seems to be prevalent from the Marriott at long wharf on the river walk and as far as the Barking Crab in South Boston. The interesting part is that looking at the guidebook I thought I was seeing native species and I realize now was that there was some native species that are struggling to survive because of an invasive species. It wasn’t until I consulted the MIT Sea Grant hitchhiker’s website that I realize the extent. What we observed was close to the Club Tunicate, Green fleece algae, Red Alge, green crabs, and the possible addition of Asian Isopod, northern rock barnacles, Tunicate, Star Tunicate and “mystery” Tunicate.

While I was researching the blue mussel I came across a very interesting article about how the Asian shore crab was introduced approximately 15 years ago and how the muscles had no defense. But in 2006 it was shown that mussels have evolved in an effort to survive that somehow managed to thicken their shells. This discovery was by Aaren Freeman and James Breyer at the University of New Hampshire. This is good news the species can develop defenses, and something that I did not anticipate.

In conclusion the concerns of the oyster farm, MIT, BU and the pew trust are well grounded. In the Pew trust oceans commission article it outlines how serious the problem is and how often invasive species are being introduced into the environment. It may take a lawsuit before there are significant changes in the ballast emptying procedures of all ships entering US waters. But it may be a very necessary step in order to protect US fisheries and shellfish farms. There needs to be significant changes in education and enforcement and agricultural importation.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/060901_mussels

http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Protecting_ocean_life/env_oceans_species.pdf

http://massbay.mit.edu/publications/hitchhikers/Hitchhikers2.pdf

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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

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Terry Baurley Dock Investigations

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