Vol. 2, No. 1 Contents
Headline Back Issues Winter 1997
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Gulf Log
Feds conditionally approve MA nonpoint pollution plan Boston, Massachusetts - After an extensive public notice period, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conditionally approved Massachusetts' Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Plan last fall. This makes Massachusetts one of the first four states in the country to receive such approval, along with Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The conditional approval means that NOAA and EPA have sanctioned all of Massachusetts' strategies for dealing with coastal sources of nonpoint pollution, and have set up a timetable for the state to implement those solutions. Written by Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management with participation by other state agencies, the plan outlines the methods for restoring and protecting the state's coastal waters from nonpoint source pollution resulting from stormwater and agricultural runoff, and septic system pollution. Specifically, strategies will address urban sources; marinas and boats; agriculture; forestry; hydromodification, which includes channel changes, dam construction and use; stream bank and shoreline erosion; and wetlands. ME leads Atlantic salmon protection efforts in state Augusta, Maine - The National Marine Fisheries Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a proposal in December to protect Atlantic salmon in seven Maine rivers under the federal Endangered Species Act. Instead, the fish will be protected by Maine's newly developed Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan, which combines the efforts of state, federal and private programs. The state-designed plan only the second of its kind in the nation approved for a fish species addresses the potential impacts of aquaculture, forestry, recreational fishing, and a wide range of agricultural activities. It was developed during the last two years by a task force of scientists, academics, state employees, Native American sustenance fishers, conservationists, anglers and private citizens appointed by Maine Governor Angus King. The state plan was accepted jointly by the two federal agencies responsible for recovering threatened and endangered marine and freshwater fish. Both agencies are involved because Atlantic salmon spend their early life in fresh water, mature at sea, and then return to spawn in the freshwater stream or river where they were born. The agencies will conduct joint annual reviews of whether further Endangered Species Act protection is needed for the salmon, taking into account factors including progress on Maine's plan. USFWS plan would reduce lethal gull control measures Hadley, Massachusetts - With the migratory seabirds nesting season fast approaching, the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) is seeking approval of a new management plan which would reduce, but not rule out lethal gull control in Monomoy Island National Wildlife Refuge off of Cape Cod. USFWS planned to submit a final draft of its plan to US Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in time for measures to be in place for the 1998 nesting season, which begins in April. The agency's methods for managing the island during the 1996 and 1997 nesting seasons included poisoning gulls which were colonizing parts of the island and preventing other seabirds from nesting there. Outraged Chatham residents, with support from animals rights groups, called for an end to the policy, and Babbitt halted the practice in August pending further study. Following a series of public meetings, a scientific workshop, and an independent review of its management practices on Monomoy by the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, USFWS issued a draft 1998 plan in December stating that it intends to used mostly non-lethal "harassment" methods to keep gulls out of certain areas. These methods include establishing a field camp on-site early in each nesting season, firing shot guns with "cracker shells" and breaking up gull nests. The agency promised to stop poisoning gulls on Monomoy "for the foreseeable future," but has not ruled out other lethal methods for controlling gulls on the island, including shooting them. The Endangered Species Act charges USFWS with protecting migratory birds such as reseate terns and piping plovers, but more recent legislation also requires the agency to manage refuges for diversity of species, even if some are not endangered. USFWS officials say some gulls which arrive earlier in the season than the other birds and take over their nesting territory must be kept out of certain areas if other species are to reproduce. Sometimes gulls can be chased away, but USFWS has said in other cases it has had to kill the birds. Officials say controlling gulls has increased numbers of terns, plovers and grassland nesting birds on Monomoy. Washington, DC - The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December released its long-awaited report evaluating the human health and environmental impacts of air emissions of mercury, calling the document a full scientific assessment. "This publication has been subjected to extensive peer review by independent scientists and health experts," said EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner. EPA stated that the report contains substantial input from industry groups, the public, and state, local and federal government agencies. EPA has been criticized for being three years late with the report. Critics say the delays have stalled action to control hazardous air emissions, but Browner said the agency "has already taken a series of actions to reduce emissions of mercury into the environment 50 percent by 2006." The publication, "Mercury Study Report to Congress," was required by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. It estimates that all U.S. industrial sources such as electric utilities, municipal waste combustors, commercial and industrial boilers, medical waste incinerators, and chlor-alkali plants, emitted about 159 tons of mercury into the air in 1995. Mercury is a heavy metal that, with high exposure, can cause neurological problems. Mercury emissions to the atmosphere can enter waterways in rainfall and runoff, entering the food chain and building up as methyl mercury (mercury's toxic form) in the tissues of predatory fish, often eaten by humans. The executive summary of the report is accessible at http://www.epa.gov/airlinks on the Internet. 
New England Aquarium opens new West Wing - Representing the first phase of the aquarium's three-part expansion project to be completed in 2002, the17,400 square-foot wing, opened in January, includes a two-level changing exhibit gallery and a larger free outdoor harbor seal exhibit with views from above and below the water line. The Aquarium is well-known for its marine research as well as its work to educate the public about the marine environment. |
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Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine