From Snails to Whales: mehmet alper tekin

Showing posts with label mehmet alper tekin. Show all posts

Saturday, July 28, 2012

The Bass

Today we focused on deep water animals rather than shore zone organisms. In the first part of the class, we learnt about the life of a bass, eating habits, migration, catching regulations and so on. Then, for the second part of the lesson, we moved to the kitchen of the main building. There we learnt the parts of its body while preparing it to be cooked. After removing the filet, we had a chance to taste sushimi or whatever its name. At the end of the lesson, we took a piece of filet to take home. It is in the refrigerator for now, we couldn’t cook it yet.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Lovell Island observations

Lovell Island is similar to Peddocks Island in terms of living organisms and also habitat. But this time, the beach was less rocky and somewhat sandy. Also the boundary of terrestrial region and water was not accurate in Lovell Island beach unlike the Peddocks Island. The reason why there are less cobble in Lovell Island can be the conversion is still in progress there. I guess as time goes by, the Lovell Island will become a cobbled beach. Even similar organisms exist in this Island such as periwinkles, crabs, rockweeds, snails, barnacles, tunicates and sea lettuce, this time, the amount of those organisms was surprisingly enormous compared to other habitats. However, although there are huge amount of periwinkles, comparatively there were not different kinds of it. Almost all of them were gray-brown periwinkles, but there were rarely yellow and white periwinkles. I guess they were all the members of the same species.

On the other hand, we saw some snail shells that have different colors on the rocks away from the sea. When we walked into the woods, we saw same kind of snail on the trees. Since we didn’t see those shells in the low tide region but many of them in the terrestrial region, they should be a different kind of snails. I guess it was “Grove snail (Cepaea nemoralis)”. Most prominent predators of these snails were birds and mice according to the study of Rosin, Olborska and Surmacki in 2011. They explained the preferences of birds and mice and the results showed that mice choose small individuals because they use their teeth to break and large shells require more time and energy in order to extract the soft tissues. However, birds break Grove Snails open by repeatedly knocking them on large stones, so small snails are not profitable for birds and they tend to choose large species because of their higher food value (Rosin, Olborska and Surmacki, 2011). This explains how they came to the beach from the top of trees.

Rosin, Olborska and Surmacki. (2011). Differences in predatory pressure on terrestrial snails by birds and mammals. Journal of Biosciences. September 2011, 691–699.

http://www.springerlink.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/content/3242035067755805/fulltext.pdf

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Clean water

Water is essential to life. I care about the vital aspects of water rather than its other features. There are many pictures or PowerPoint presentations on the internet about future scenarios without water. Since water cannot be manufactured and the fresh water on earth comprises only a small proportion of water supply, I have always been worried about lack of clean water. The issue is not a lack of water, but a lack of clean water. It is argued that it will cause crisis in the future. Even today, there are conflicts in some regions in the world, especially in some African countries, because of scarce water. Since water is the most vital natural source and it is the basis of economies, societies and human life, every person in the world needs clean water. However, the population of the world is growing rapidly and the clean water supply becomes scarcer day by day. And this population growth increases the usage of public infrastructures and this increasing usage causes the contamination of water and difficulties to clean it. Communities should be aware of the importance of clean water to prevent scarcity. Usage of water for non-vital issues such as for fun, swimming or other activities are also important but they are of secondary importance.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Today we went to Peddock's island early in the morning. Before we started our walk, we saw some houses near the dock and a ranger spoke about island briefly there. then we started to walk through a wooded area and we saw red berries on the way to the beach. The beach was rocky and there were many dead organisms. It was very interesting for me to learn that the main reason of the rocky beach was the periwinkles. The water level was falling when we reached there and the weather was very hot.
The beach was full of mussel shells, slipper shells, razor clams, dead crabs, rocks, dead periwinkles, glass, and some seaweeds, etc. The lighter objects were pushed up by the tides and they formed lines along the beach.
After lunch, the water level was getting lower and we had more opportunity to see some living things. We saw many crabs under the rocks and we touched them. It was a bit scary and interesting experience. We tried to understand their sex. We also saw amphopods and periwinkles under the rocks. However, when we came back to Boston, my only concern was the miserable sunburn pain.
Alper

Sunday, July 15, 2012

boston harbor observations

If it is asked me what are the plants and animals that I saw today in the harbor, I would say grass, bird and fish. Since it is not a sufficient answer for the course content, I will try to differentiate them. And after summer term, they will go back to their classification; grass, bird and fish.

Firstly, we again tried to understand whether sea level is rising or falling. We look at the rocks whether they are wet or dry in order to understand the sea level is rising or falling. There, we saw rockweeds and we had chance to look closer and we saw that there were water bubbles on the rockweed. We saw a fish that is approximately 27-28 inches tall. We threw bread to see those fishes. Also, in the same location we saw cormorants, one of them was black and the other was white. One of them dived in the water to find food.

Then, we stopped by the aquarium and there was a sea urchin located at the bottom of the aquarium. It couldn’t be seen clearly because of glass and the distance but its color was dark, probably purple or black.

After that, we went to the harbor and we observed the species that we can see on the surface or near surface. Sea lettuce and seaweed existed almost everywhere we observed. Their color was mostly green, brown or a mixture of them.

Also we saw white barnacles on the pillars. After sunset, they open and eat planktons in the water, but under sun light they are tiny white creatures, I didn’t guess that they were living organisms at all.

We walked along the harbor and we had opportunity to observe living organisms in different parts of the harbor. In one of those parts, we saw mussels behind the seaweeds and sea lettuce. They were black and were embedded to the other organisms, or I saw like in that way.

Finally, I can count skeleton shrimps which surprised me, it looks like plant but they started to move after we put them on the wharf. They were tiny creatures and I guess they had a few legs, their color was light yellow. There were orange parts near those shrimps but I couldn’t understand what it is.

To compare with the previous year’s posts, I can say that there are very similar results. The reason of it may be the sea level did not change much from year to year, or there weren’t any extraordinary events that affect the variety of living organisms in harbor.

Alper

Saturday, July 14, 2012

boat trip

Hi all,
Alper again,
Today before our boat trip, we talked about the tides and we tried to guess whether the sea level is rising or falling. First guess was that it was rising because sea level was very low and we anticipated that it will rise. We learned that tidal period is 6 hours and probably the time was a turning point where the water stops falling and reaching the low tide.

We started our boat trip at 13:30, the weather was hot, however, we were under a shade and it was windy along the boat tour. We saw the islands placed from Boston harbor to Quincy and we have learned some details about those islands. Especially the way of Professor to explain sewage treatment plant was interesting. and i also found interesting how they completed the facility without being affected by governmental changes and some other future effects. Firstly, they completed the things that would be more difficult and expensive to change later. We also saw people swimming, sailing and enjoying the ocean and it is really a wonderful evolution from a sewer to such a clean and healthy water. It seems the project worth every penny spent on it.

On the way back to Boston, we stopped by the Logan Airport and then we reached Boston approximately at 15:30 and we had a general idea about the harbor.

introduction and sink experiment

hi, my name is Alper, i am from Turkey and i have been working for telecommunication authority in Turkey since 2006. i am studying financial economics at BU and this is my last semester. at least i hope so.
supposedly, it is the coriolis effect that determines the direction of water draining from a sink, but when i google it, it is stated that it was only a myth, as most of my classmates explained. the water may drain in either clockwise or counterclockwise and it depends only on the very first move that affects the water in the sink. the way you remove your hand from the sink, maybe the temperature in the room and some other micro factors affect the direction of water, not the coriolis effect which is a force related to ocean currents, airplanes, winds etc. so in the other semiphere, i guess the logic will be the same.

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.”