July 10 – Local Summer Fisheries – Bluefish- The third post in the Local Summer Fisheries series is on bluefish, a species known for their chaotic feeding frenzies and putting up a good fight on the end of a fishing rod.

July 10 – What Single-Celled Diatoms Know That We Can’t Seem To Take Seriously – A recent study from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences reveals that increased precipitation, likely due to climate change, is correlated with a drastic reduction in primary productivity levels in the Gulf of Maine. Phytoplankton, the organisms responsible for fixing carbon from the atmosphere and the oceans, are at the very base of the marine food web.

July 13 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, July 13 – On July 9^th, in a major victory for alewives, the EPA directed Maine’s Attorney General to take action to allow alewives and other small fish species to access habitat above the Grand Falls Dam in the St. Croix River.  A story from this weekend’s Portland Press Herald covers the history of the 17 year effort to open the St. Croix to these important forage fish, which are at the base of many commercially and ecologically important marine food chains.

Last week the development of wind energy offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts moved one step closer with the publication of an environmental assessment (EA) by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) regarding commercial wind lease issuance and site assessment activities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The purpose of the EA is to determine whether or not issuance of leases and approval of site assessment plans within a designated area offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts would lead to reasonably foreseeable and significant impacts on the environment. The EA is available online here.

BOEM will accept public comments on the EA and then will determine whether or not to issue a finding of No Significant Impact or conduct additional analysis under NEPA. The deadline for public comments is August 2.  CLF is reviewing the 379-page EA, with a particular focus on the impact to sensitive marine habitats, fish populations and fishing activities, water quality, and marine mammals – particularly the endangered right whale – and sea turtles. CLF will submit comments. CLF believes that offshore wind deployment is a critical clean energy supply resource which must be deployed expeditiously and in significant quantities, in a manner that protects ocean wildlife and sensitive seafloor habitats.

BOEM is hosting two public information sessions to provide an overview of the EA and the next steps in the leasing process. At these sessions, BOEM will accept comments and address questions, so CLF encourages interested members to attend.

Public Information Sessions:

Monday, July 16, 2012, 7:00 p.m.
University of Rhode Island
Coastal Institute – Hazard’s Room
218 South Ferry Road
Narragansett, Rhode Island 02874

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 7:00 p.m.
Fairfield Inn & Suites
185 MacArthur Drive
New Bedford, Massachusetts 02740

A recent scientific article from four Maine ocean scientists reminded me of a not-very-good environmental joke. An archangel was reporting to God all the terrible things that humans had done to the earth’s environment. God listened patiently as the list expanded, interjecting regularly that the archangel was not to worry; these events had all been anticipated. But when the angel reported that there was now a hole in the ozone layer, God bolted upright in shock: “I told them not to mess with the ozone layer!”

The article I was reading was not about ozone holes. Obscurely titled Step-changes in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the Gulf of Maine, as documented by the GNATS times series, four researchers, led by Dr. William M. Balch from the prestigious Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, reported on work they had done looking at a number of data bases of various physical, chemical, and biological markers in the Gulf of Maine. They focused on a series of ship-based sampling data collected between 1998 and 2010.

The researchers reported a startling fact: “[t]he standing stock of phytoplankton … generally decreased since 2005” and there had been a “dramatic” decrease in carbon fixation by phytoplankton across the Gulf of Maine in recent years.

The paper explained this dramatic decrease by pointing to increased precipitation in the Gulf of Maine watersheds in recent years. Four of the eight highest annual precipitation years in the last century in Maine occurred between 1998 and 2010. The data led them to conclude that this increased and atypical precipitation—a commonly predicted phenomenon associated with climate change –interfered with phytoplankton production by discharging increased amounts of colored dissolved organic matter from the watersheds into the Gulf that outcompeted marine plankton for available light.

This is no small matter. Phytoplankton is the base of virtually all marine life in the ocean. Moreover, marine phytoplankton around the world has been estimated to draw more carbon dioxide—a primary climate change gas—from the atmosphere and the oceans than all land plants combined. The punch line to the joke might just as well have been: “I told them not to mess with the phytoplankton!”

While it will take some time before a decline in phytoplankton production in the Gulf of Maine would manifest itself higher up in the marine food web by fewer numbers of high level fishes, the Bigelow researchers were correct to point out that historic high fish productivity in the Gulf of Maine marine system is directly linked to its high productivity of plankton. The health of the marine food web depends on the strength of its planktonic base.

This report’s startling analysis aligns in a troubling way with anecdotal information from fishermen and from fisheries science data that has been surfacing recently. Fish don’t seem to be as large at the different ages as they used to be and a number of predicted strong larval year classes of fish like Atlantic cod have “disappeared” before they became big enough to enter the fishery. Are Gulf of Maine fish failing to thrive like they once did as a consequence of declines in plankton production?

Climate change is happening and its impacts are already being registered in New England. The consequences of our profligate carbon consumption patterns will continue to challenge our ecosystem, our economy, and our way of life through both dramatic and random events that devastate coastal areas as well as chronic ecosystem changes that can be seen at the level of a single-celled phytoplankton. Sadly, it’s no joke.

A day at the beach in Rhode Island. Photo: Juliancolton2

It’s July, it’s hot, and – as long as there are no big sharks around – you’d like to go swimming. There’s only one problem: you get to the beach and find out you might get sick if you go in the water. In New England, it’s more likely than not that the unhealthy water condition was caused by polluted runoff from a storm. Mark Twain said, if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a few minutes – but, these days, you may be waiting a full day or more to go to the beach even after the sun has come out.

In New England, over 800 beaches are monitored under the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000, administered and tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The BEACH Act allows funding for coastal states, territories, and tribes to monitor beaches for public health risks and inform the public of those risks.

A recent EPA BEACH report shows unhealthy swimming conditions in New England aren’t going away. In fact, they may be getting worse. A 2012 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) show closures and advisories at our beaches in 2011 reached the third highest level in the 22 years that NRDC has been keeping track.

The things that make is sick in the water mostly come from the land, and we need a better way to manage this foul problem. The pollution in our beaches is rooted in the way we plan and maintain our wastewater, roads, parking lots, and coastal development. Unhealthy swimming conditions that result in a beach advisory or closure can result from sewer overflows, treatment plant malfunctions, stormwater runoff, waste from boats, leakage of septic systems, or pet and wildlife waste.

Percent of Monitored Beaches Impacted by a Beach Advisory or Closure by State in Three New England States (2007-2011)

Problems caused by a series of small sources add up in big ways and are some of the hardest to solve. The solutions require comprehensive planning at multiple levels of government and management. New England states have taken important steps to monitor and inform the public about dangerous swimming conditions, but the next steps will be addressing the causes of beach closures and advisories. This will involve a variety of decision makers and stakeholders – from transportation planners, to municipal wastewater managers, to individual property owners and developers – just to name a few.

Regional Ocean Planning is a process that allows everyone who has a stake in the health of the ocean to have a say in how it’s managed. It’s a process that can be used to address problems like this by providing a platform for everyone from wastewater managers to beachgoers to talk about how their decisions can impact the value of our resources. We need this type of planning and cooperation to help ensure that a day at the beach is, well, a day at the beach.

July 3 – Local Summer Fisheries – Dogfish – This second installment in the Local Summer Fisheries series is about Dogfish, a small and relatively underutilized shark species that migrates up the New England coast each summer.

July 6 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, July 6 – This week in Fish Talk in the News: early shedding leads to historically low lobster prices; a great video about mercury in the environment and in seafood; the World Wildlife Fund releases their plan to create a Financial Institution for the Recovery of Marine Ecosystems; author and historian H. Bruce Franklin of Rutgers University discusses the importance of menhaden in an interview about his book, The Most Important Fish in the Sea; UMass Dartmouth receives a grant to fund groundfish stock assessment research; and scientists are mapping the ocean floor 15 miles off the Maine coast.

This week, along with millions of Americans, I will cheer at a parade, join a BBQ, and watch fireworks. I will do this with my family, in a familiar place, with familiar faces, and celebrate this most American of holidays.

July 4th has always meant a great deal to me, first as an American boy growing up, and now as an American environmentalist. It is a great holiday because it is a holiday that makes us proud of what we’ve accomplished. Independence. Self reliance. Prosperity.

These values are often associated with places: when we think of America, we think of the icons of America. Yellowstone. Zion. And New England’s very own Acadia National Park. As Americans, preserving these natural treasures is among our proudest accomplishments. Our oceans should be no different. Here, in the Gulf of Maine, we have George’s Bank, Stellwagen Bank, and Cashes Ledge – a spectacular undersea mountain range – where you find steep canyons, deep kelp forests, and vibrant, charismatic marine life. Their beauty and majesty are breathtaking.

Why, then, do these special ocean places not stir us like our special places on land? I believe it’s because  we don’t see them. We don’t think of our underwater treasures as icons of America because we can’t light up our grill next to a kelp forest and watch seals swim by, like we can an eagle flying over head.

There can be no doubt that our oceans are national treasures. To help raise awareness – and to literally raise these places out of the sea and into our living rooms and offices – we have launched the New England Ocean Odyssey with National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry. The photos from this first-of-its-kind journey will show just how magnificent, and how fragile, the ocean can be. Indeed, they already have. This early collection of photos from Brian is only the beginning.

The photo of a sea star, featured above, is a bright burst of color against a dark backdrop – a firework against a night sky. The seal is part friend, part pastor, welcoming you and praying at the same time. And the image of the right whale bursts with strength. It swells with American pride.

Just as there is no doubt that our oceans are treasures, so too is there no doubt that they are being damaged. Bottom trawlers damage huge swaths of the ocean floor with their heavy chains, doors and dredges, likened by some scientists to a bulldozer scraping the delicate floor of a pristine forest. New England’s oceans are rising much faster than predicted. They are also becoming more acidic from harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Recent record increases in precipitation may even be fundamentally altering plankton production, jeopardizing the very productivity of our marine web of life.

As you celebrate Independence Day this week, and think about America’s independence, think about what makes us proud to be Americans. Think about the pride we take in our National Parks, and the foresight we had to protect them and so many other treasured landscapes. And think about how much we depend on, but how little protection we give to, our oceans.

In our increasingly interdependent world, that is pushing the limits of our ecosystems, certain renewed forms of independence would be a good thing.

Independence from fossil fuels.

Independence from unhealthy food and transportation systems.

Independence from water-polluting infrastructure of all types.

The natural independence – and security – for our children and grandchildren, that flow from creating a truly sustainable future.

And independence that comes with the pride of protecting America’s natural resources – on land and under our shining sea.

Llike so many of us, I love New England’s ocean treasures. This July 4th, stand with CLF in remembering and protecting them, so our children and grandchildren can love them too.

Waves off West Barnstable, Massachusetts. Photo: nd-nʎ@flickr

Sea levels are rising 3-4 times faster along the east coast, from North Carolina to Massachusetts, than the global average, says a new study by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). This “hot spot” of rising water puts us at unique risk from the changes that are happening to our ocean and will “increase the vulnerability of coastal cities to flooding, and beaches and wetlands to deterioration,” according to the report.

The reasons for our higher than average sea level rise are complex and involve changes in ocean circulation, temperature, and salinity, among other things (read the full report here if you want all the details). But you don’t need to understand why it’s happening to know that this is a problem we need to figure out how to manage. Look at the recent debate in Matunuck, Rhode Island over whether to “Save the Beach or Save your House” for an example of why this matters – and matters right now.

Ocean resources are currently managed by more than 20 federal agencies and administered through a web of more than 140 different and often conflicting laws and regulations. We have to find a better way to plan for our oceans and coasts in the face of the unprecedented changes that are already happening to them.

And there IS a better way. Regional Ocean Planning is one of nine objectives of the National Ocean Policy. It’s a way to make decisions about our ocean resources that helps us factor in multiple uses and changing conditions – by using the best data and latest information and, most importantly, working together.

Regional Ocean Planning is a science-based process of improving decisions about ocean resources before conflict arises – by involving everyone who has a stake in those resources, including municipalities, conservation groups, recreational users, and commercial and industrial entities.

The rate of sea level rise is predicted to continue increasing if our global temperatures keep rising. Hopefully our level of planning will rise as well.

June 26 – Local Summer Fisheries – Striped Bass - This new series will focus on a different New England summer fishery each week. Each post will include information on each fish’s biology and behavior, management history, and current stock status, along with a recipe or two. This first post focuses on striped bass.

June 29 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, June 29 - This week in Fish Talk in the News: River herring get a conservation boost as the NEFMC imposes higher regulations on the industrial Atlantic herring fleet and the Great Works Dam on the Penobscot River is demolished; the U.S. Commerce Department announces the new members of the regional fishery management councils; new studies on Atlantic cod in the Gulf of Maine reveal a more complex system than previously understood; the NEFMC votes to transfer 150 metric tons of yellowtail flounder quota from scallopers to groundfishermen; the Long Island Sound lobster fishery will be closed in 2013; and the Conservation Law Foundation and New England Ocean Odyssey release the first pictures of Brian Skerry’s recent dive to Cashes Ledge.