Draft Watershed Action Plan

A draft Watershed Action Plan document has been circulated to the Steering Committee. This document is not a draft of  the actual Watershed Action Plan but an outline of the plan goals, objectives, and action items as a starting point for discussion with the steering committee. 

We expect this draft to evolve based on feedback from the steering committee. Once the group reaches consensus on the goals, objectives and action items, we will begin to write the actual plan, which will be formatted similar to the Nissequogue River Stewardship Acton Plan and will also contain other items to meet the EPA nine elements - priorities, responsibilities, schedule, outcomes, load reductions, etc. We will also be developing site specific and targeted restoration concepts as the plan develops.

You may post comments on this blog, or submit them directly to me at p.aitken@friendsofthebay.org

Mill Pond Management Plan

Thank you to all who attended the mill pond overlook meeting. The comments submitted were thoughtful and well considered. For those of who were not able to be there, we have posted a copy of the presentation which was given by Cameron engineering. You may download a copy of the powerpoint presentation here - Mill Pond Overlook.  Please submit comments, we welcome your input. 

How's The Water - The Wave by Susan Casey

I seem to finally have some time to catch up on some reading.  Maybe it is that I am no longer lured outside by light, and now that the night comes early, I am more inclined to stay inside and read some of the books that have caught my attention and put on my “read later” list.

One of these books is The Wave  - in Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey.  This is a examination of the huge “rogue waves” that were once regarded as mariner’s tales.  Casey starts the book with describing a harrowing voyage taken by a British research ship in the North Sea.  The scientists aboard and their equipment were battered and damaged, but the equipment kept working and recorded seas at 60 feet, and some waves of 90 feet or more.  Waves of 87 feet or more were also recorded by instruments on an oil platform in the North Sea.

The two disparate groups interviewed by Casey about the phenomenon of rogue waves each bring their own insight and impressive knowledge of the sea.  Who would know and watch the sea better than competitive surfers?  They may not have scientific degrees (although at least one surfer pursued his love and wish to understand the sea better to acquire a doctorate in physics) but surfers have an ability to read the wind and the waves, and draw on their experience to judge the big waves.  They too increasingly avail themselves of satellite tracking and technology to monitor the weather and ocean currents, to know where the next big waves will be.  As if surfing were not inherently dangerous enough, the most highly competitive surfers now use jet skis to have themselves towed out to the highest and most dangerous waves, some 80 feet or more.  They all speak of the thrill and rush of successfully surfing such a wave, but when they falter the consequences are catastrophic and can be deadly.  Laird Hamilton, a champion surfer followed by Casey in her research, has had over 1,000 stitches and multiple broken bones. 

The physicists and oceanographers all seek to understand how rogue waves work.  Interestingly, there is no universally accepted description for what even a simple wave, such as we see lapping the shores in Oyster Bay harbor, is.  There are many complex forces at work, the interplay of wind, gravity, climate and physics, which make waves hard to understand, mode and define.  It is important to better understand waves, since every week at least two ships are lost at sea worldwide and never heard from again.  Rogue waves are believed to be the cause.  Casey makes an interesting visit to Lloyd’s of London, which insures so many international vessels, and describes the mournful ceremony of striking the Lutine bell every time a ship is lost.  The cost in human life is substantial, as is damage to the environment from the cargoes spilled into the ocean. 

The climatologists, oceanographers and physicists all agree that we know and understand the surface of the moon better than we know our oceans and sea floor.  They predict that with climate change there will be more rogue waves as the ocean warms, and storms become stronger and more frequent.  If a wave hits a populated area, as evidenced by the Indonesian Tsunami, the damage will be catastrophic. 

This is a very interesting and challenging book and would make a great addition to your winter reading list. 

the Public is Invited....

PUBLIC MEETING

MILL POND OVERLOOK

Habitat Management Plan

Thursday, November 18, 7-9 PM

At the offices of Friends of the Bay

111 South Street, Suite 2

Townsend Square

Oyster Bay

Join your neighbors and friends to provide input regarding the Habitat Management Plan for the Mill Pond Overlook property on Mill River Road.

The meeting will include a presentation by the Town of Oyster Bay’s

environmental planning consultants,

followed by the opportunity to provide suggestions and feedback

regarding the preliminary concepts shown in the presentation.

Book Review - Four Fish by Paul Greenberg

Four Fish – The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg is a beautifully written examination of the complexities involved in our relationship with fish as a food source.  The four fish referred to in the title are salmon, cod, tuna and sea bass.  Greenberg raises many questions – the depletion of fish stocks by overfishing to the point where the survival of species is questionable, and the practices of fish farming, which can spread disease to wild fish.  The amount of wild fish necessary to feed the fish being farmed is considerable, and depletes another stock.   He examines each of these four fish species, and the possibilities of whether or not they can be farmed. 

One of the greatest challenges posed is the very nature of the fish themselves – they roam the world’s oceans across international boundaries.  In order to protect fish stocks, nations must agree on when and where, and what methods should be used to harvest fish, if they should be harvested at all.  Greenberg makes a convincing case that it may be already too late to save bluefin tuna.  The author writes lyrically “If salmon led us out of the Neolithic caves in the highlands down to the mouths of rivers, if sea bass and other coastal perciforms led us from the safety of the shore to the reefs and rocks that surround the coasts, and if cod and the gadiforms led us beyond the sight of land to the edges of the continental shelves, tuna have taken us over the precipice of the continental shelves into the abyss of the open sea – the final frontier of fishing and the place where the wildest things are making the last argument for the importance of an untamed ocean.” 

He questions whether fish are wildlife that are sensitive to our actions and merit our sound protection and propagation in the way we take care of our terrestrially farmed animals.  For too long seafood was thought of as a crop that grows back every year and never required planting. The ocean seemed to be a limitless resource, but relentless and unsustainable industrial fish harvesting and habitat loss has taken its toll.  For example, as many as 100 million Atlantic salmon larvae hatched in the Connecticut River.  Dams and overfishing have destroyed that fishery, and there is no longer any wild Atlantic salmon

At the end of the book, Greenberg suggests four actions which need to be taken to restore the health of fisheries: 

1. a profound reduction in fishing effort.  The United Nations estimates the fishing fleet is twice as large as the oceans can support.  Fishing  fleets are subsidized by governments and consequently, wild fish are unreasonably cheap. 

2.  there should be a conversion ofsignificant portions of ocean ecosystems to no-catch areas.  Key fish breeding and nursery habitats must be preserved as safe havens if fish stocks are to rebuild harvestable numbers.  Currently, only one percent of ocean habita t is protected

3.  gloobal protection of unmanageable species – species or stocks that straddle too many nations, like Atlantic bluefin tuna is necessary

4.  protection of the bottom of the food chain.  Small forage fish like anchovies, sardines, capelin and herring, are a huge portion of fish caught. Removing the basic food source of the ocean can cause a fisheries collapse from below.

This is a marvelously written book which  raises many thoughtful and important questions.  It will be up to  us to determine how important it is to preserve the last truly wild food. 

Baywatch stayed at the dock not last week, not due to wind or weather conditions, but due to an engine malfunction.  Not the boat’s – I was in Syracuse for my niece’s wedding and my car broke down on the way to her reception.  So, I had the car towed, and spent a little time longer in Syracuse than I had planned.  Oh well, my niece and her new husband are a wonderful couple, and it was a lovely wedding, and family is what it is all about.  I’m looking forward to the next wedding already.  Our Friends of the Bay volunteers are the best, and we will be extending our season by one week to get in another round of water quality monitoring to end out our year.