U.S. Water News Online
GLOUCESTER, Mass. -- After cleaning the bottom of his boat in the Annisquam River last September, Brad Chase dove a few feet deeper to look at the bed of the salt water estuary, expecting a view more like a moonscape than a seascape.
What he found surprised, awed, and disturbed him. Chase, a marine biologist, saw a cascade of color in green crabs, blue mussels, orange tunicates, and flat, browning European oysters. "The contrast in colors and textures as the sunlight filtered through the running tide was mesmerizing," he said. "It took a few minutes before I realized that these creatures were not supposed to be here. Almost every creature catching my eye was not native to our waters."
Chase said he began wondering about the future of coastal waters from Boston Harbor to the Gulf of Maine. He is not alone. Bruce Carlisle and Christian Krahforst at the state's Office of Coastal Zone Management have a focus on the health of wetlands between the sea and shore. Others, including April Ridlon, a biology researcher at the Massachusetts Audubon Society's North Shore office in Wenham, and Sal Genovese, education coordinator at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center in Nahant, also research the coastline and deeper waters.
Their views on the region's coastline offer hope, pessimism, a large dose of caution, and as many questions as answers about the next decade and beyond.
Chase, a researcher at the state Division of Marine Fisheries Laboratory in Gloucester, said the invasion of non-native species such as the European oyster, along with the destruction of natural habitats and watershed buffers, are threatening a variety of marine species.
With him, colleague Jeff Plouff, a lab analyst and field support technician at the state's Annisquam Station, examined the flat shells of European oysters, whose population has exploded in Salem and more recently in Gloucester, including the Annisquam River. They are not as meaty as American oysters, which they tend to crowd out.
"Influences from stormwater inputs and watershed development are quickly degrading the spawning habitats of river herring, smelt, and their cousins," he said.
Fish such as smelt come in from the ocean to lay their eggs in estuaries where salt and fresh water meet. As a result of human development of that habitat, "these sea-run species . . . will be challenged in the next century," he contended.
Carlisle, a wetlands specialist at the Office of Coastal Zone Management, said he expects the push to develop the northern coastline and adjacent wetlands to continue but believes people will make a greater effort "to preserve and protect those ecosystems that make their areas unique."
"The buzz words are `smart growth' and `sustainable development,' " he said. "I don't care what you call it as long as people work to protect, preserve and in some cases, restore those ecosystems unique to their communities."
His office, he said, is working with other state and federal agencies and local groups such as The Trustees of Reservations and Salem Sound 2000 to help educate citizens on the environment and to empower them to protect it.
A series of pilot projects from Ipswich to Danvers started last year have enabled local volunteers to monitor water quality in estuaries on the North Shore, he said.
"We can see patterns of degradation of salt marshes over the last century," he said, "from building roads, bridges, and other things that change or restrict the flow of tidal waters."
"Generally," Carlisle said, "we're getting better at doing the things we ought to do. We're now protecting salt marsh resources by engaging in better stormwater management, by looking at buffered development distance, and by making sure septic systems are up to code.
"There are many steps along the way. I feel pretty positive about where we are right now," Carlile added.
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