From Snails to Whales: Aleksandra Binkowska

Showing posts with label Aleksandra Binkowska. Show all posts

Friday, July 26, 2013

Last Day...

And here it is…the end of our class…it is sad to admit it’s over. We all had so much fun and learnt so many new and interesting things!

During our meeting at 871 Comm Ave we talked a bit more about the ideas that can be done in order to save the striped bass. As our professor pointed out it is hard to save it because basically every state has a different law to save the striped bass.

There is one thing I would like to say: I really enjoyed this class! And the best part about it was the fact that it took me out of my comfort zone and made me see things differently that I had seen before. It left me curious to find out so much more about what I was literally holding in my hands and setting my eyes on.

I learnt so many new things that I once considered strange and learn how to observe things and apply that knowledge to my life. I cannot wait to take my kids (the ones I care for) to the beach and tell them what I have learnt and maybe we will be able to explore more! Holding my guidebook of course!

I really hope everyone enjoyed this class as much as I did, so…Thank you Bruce for making this class such an amazing experience!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Public Hearing Day 5th

Day 5 Public hearing

We started our day by meeting in a classroom and talking about sustainability to the striped bass. Next, we went over the midterm we had taken before improving our knowledge on the things we may not got right in the test.

After our class we all went to Downtown Boston to take part in Harbor Planning Advisory Committee meeting. We were able to listen and watch interesting presentations done by people who really care about The Marriott long Wharf, The Long Warf the public area in specific, but also the New England Aquarium. During those presentations we were able to learn the historical background of the Long Wharf etc. What was nice about it was that people were able to ask questions and express their concerns and hopes they may have for the Boston Harbor.

What I personally found interesting was that they are trying to make it more accessible to the public and attract more tourism, but also renovation they want to have done to the area.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Day 4. Aleksandra Binkowska

Our 4^th day started by meeting on the courthouse’s dock at 8:00 am and soon after that we were on a boat called Belle heading to Lovell’s island. At around 9:00 am we stopped and fished for a bit. We were able to catch a good number of sea bass measuring from about 9 inches up to 15”. What I found interesting was that they are born female but as they grow they become male with a lump on their head and with their color slightly darkening.

After some time we stopped at the second location during which we could watch and experience how to dissect a fish. The fish that was being dissected was a black sea bass with small scales. I learnt that if their skin is black you could actually eat it. After cutting it we could see what the fish had eaten earlier- a tiny shrimp but also we were able to notice that the fish had male and female organs so it was in the process of changing into a male.

During our second fishing location one of the classmates was lucky to catch a big stripper and that way provided a lot of excitement on the boat! The fish measured 30 inches.

When we reached Lovell’s Island we headed to tide pools where we spent a good amount of our time. The water was clear but as the time went by the level of the water was slightly rising, changing the clarity of the water as well. We could also spot how much the tide can rise by the green moss on bigger rocks that were located on the higher level of the beach.

The 2^nd tide pool we visited provided us with a big number of Asian crabs. I learnt that this evidence could be a bad thing because they could be a reason of fewer species likes blue crabs. We also saw Periwinkles, rockweed, hermit crabs, barnacles etc.

On our way back to the city we didn’t stop to fish anymore but were entertained by a captain dissecting more of the fish using this time two knives. We explored that the dissected striper was a female and still had fish eggs inside.

To conclude, I want to say that today was a very interesting, educational but also a very fun day! And I’m really looking forward to moreJ

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Aleksandra Binkowska

Our second day started from meeting at the Marriott hotel and talking over what we were going to do that day. The sun was shining and the heat was pretty intense but that didn’t stop us from being excitedJ. Soon enough we started our walk by stopping at some places along the harbor to learn and observe new things.

We talked a lot about the seaweed and about how many different colors/kinds we observed at that time (green, black with a tinge of purple, and a rockweed). Also what was interesting was the fact that when they sit in the sun they get and look dry but as soon as a tide comes in they get back to their normal ”lettuce” shape. We were also entertained by a seagull catching a crab and kind of fighting it in the beginning but eventually then eating it. Moreover, we were able to throw some bread in the water and watching fish catching it, also we were able to identify a navy blue, triangle shaped shell learning that it was not a California Mussel shell but a Blue Mussel shell.

The main attraction of the day was splitting in groups and doing some more observations at the docks of The Barking Crab restaurant where we had a chance to actually “go down and dirty” taking various things out of the water. In a pretty good amount of time we found a good number of mussels, seaweed (the lettuce kind), a lot of orange staff, as well as tiny little creatures that were still very small under a magnifying glass (looked kind of like a Horned Krill but it is hard to define).

In overall it was an amazing day, cannot wait for a wicked amazing one tomorrow!

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.”