Gulf Log : The Gulf of Maine Times: Vol. 5 No. 4

A wide spectrum of technology used to map the seafloor of the Gulf of Maine is helping a range of people from scientists to environmental educators understand the changing dynamics of marine habitats. While some researchers are using high-resolution sonar and other sophisticated equipment to determine the effects of seabed disturbances from trawling, dredging or storm currents, others are conducting smaller-scale projects to monitor such things as lobster habitat and tide pool ecology.

Grand Manan Island viewed from Lubec, Maine
Photo: Daryl-Ann Hurst

Coordinating these various mapping projects and finding ways to make the information available to users and potential users of the technology was the focus of a workshop held in October in Sebasco Estates, Maine. The Marine Habitat Characterization and Mapping Workshop drew more than 60 participants from throughout the Gulf region, including fisheries managers, fishermen, researchers, educators, environmentalists and industry representatives.

Sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, the two-day session presented an overview of past and current mapping projects in the Gulf and demonstrated the range of techniques and technologies used to better understand and map marine environments.

Presenters included representatives from Natural Resources Canada, NOAA Coastal Services Center, Salem Sound 2000 and the Massachusetts Audubon Society. With the aid of audiovisuals, the speakers discussed the capabilities and limitations of their projects.

Susan Snow-Cotter of the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and coordinator of the workshop, said the presentations showed the extent to which mapping technologies can be applied, from aiding resource managers in reviewing permits to protecting marine habitats.

“While there is a lot of scientific work being done using these technologies, we are just beginning to realize other potential benefits, such as using the data to improve environmental decision-making and as educational tools,” she said. “One of the goals was to expose users and potential users to these different applications and to help them start thinking of ways they could use them in their work.”

As part of the workshop, participants identified priority areas for mapping in the Gulf, such as the Great South Channel off
Massachusetts, which has already undergone some mapping by the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. portion of Georges Bank.

“With the Canadian side of Georges Bank already mapped,” Snow-Cotter said, “We acknowledged that a high priority would to be map the U.S. side.”

Another recommendation included developing a database to coordinate efforts and a plan to map near shore and intertidal areas of the Gulf, where data is lacking.

Snow-Cotter added that although participants sited areas where more work is needed, “It is important to keep in mind that the Gulf of Maine region is far ahead of other coastal regions in the U.S. and Canada in terms of ocean mapping."

A workshop report, due out early next year, will give a list of recommendations and will detail the areas in the Gulf that are being mapped and those already mapped. The report will be available on the Gulf of Maine Council’s Web site at www.gulfofmaine.org. An implementation committee that formed following the workshop presented the workshop’s recommendations to the Gulf of Maine Council at its December meeting earlier this month in St. John, New Brunswick.

Grant proposals: river restoration

American Rivers is seeking proposals for community-based river restoration grants as part of its new partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Community-Based Restoration Program. The grants aim to provide support for local communities that are using dam removal or fish passage to restore and protect the ecology of their rivers and improve freshwater habitats important to migratory fish. To be eligible, applicants must demonstrate how their project will successfully restore anadromous fish habitat and minimize any negative impacts to the river system as a result of the project and other criteria. The next deadline for applications is April 1. For an application and eligibility guidelines go to the American Rivers Web site at www.americanrivers.org/feature/restorationgrants.htm.

Grant proposals: habitat restoration

The Gulf of Maine Council is seeking proposals for habitat restoration grants as part of a partnership with the NOAA Fisheries’ Community-based Restoration Program. These grants are designed to further the Council's goal of habitat restoration. Eligible projects include anadromous fish restoration and coastal wetlands restoration in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts with consideration given to projects within Canada that can demonstrate benefits to transboundary resources. This partnership will award up to $285,000 USD for habitat restoration in 2002. Grant awards, to be announced by the end of March, will range from $5,000 to $50,000 USD. The deadline for proposals is January 15. Grant application materials are posted on the Council’s Web site at http://gulfofmaine.org/council/habitat.shtml.

Students check vital signs

Students from six communities in Maine and two communities in New Hampshire are learning about aquatic environments using sophisticated technology that includes handheld computers, satellite based GPS receivers, water temperature probes, portable keyboards and pint-sized digital cameras. The program, called Vital Signs, was developed by the Gulf of Maine Aquarium (GMA) in Portland, Maine. It allows students to monitor freshwater and saltwater ecosystems in the Gulf of Maine watershed and share their data with the world, via the GMA’s Web site, www.gma.org/vital_signs.

Working with a local software development company, Pulse Data System, GMA created the Vital Signs software that enables Palm handheld computers to communicate with peripheral technologies. In GMA’s prototype program, middle school students integrated location data, water temperature data, anecdotal observations and digital imagery. GMA intends to build a sophisticated database that visualizes Vital Signs information by geo-referencing data on the World Wide Web.

In February, GMA was chosen to be one of 15 Palm Education Pioneers by Palm, Inc., a leading manufacturer of handheld computers. Subsequently, GMA was chosen to be one of nine Palm Research Hubs in the nation. With this recognition came 120 Palm’s hand-held computers for demonstration of the Vital Signs program.

This fall, students at Stearns High School in Millinocket, Maine are using Vital Signs tools to observe and quantify the water quality above the stream of a local paper company, as well as downstream from the facility. The students are interested in what effects the location of the paper company may have on the local water quality. Students at Shead High School in Eastport, Maine are using the systems to monitor green crab populations found in their local embayments. This program has recently entered its second phase and will continue and expand in the coming year.

Local approaches to using the tools will be shared among the communities and with the general public to stimulate a national
model for handheld technology in the classroom, as well as in the field.

The Vital Signs program is supported by the GMA’s Internet Circuit Rider program which provides assistance to teachers and other non-profit organizations interested in using communications technologies in either their classroom or organization. Since the launch of its Web site, GMA has provided support to teachers interested in using computing and communications technologies to teach about aquatic environments.

-Courtney Coles, Gulf of Maine Circuit Rider

Todd’s Point nearing purchase

The St. Croix Estuary Project (SCEP) has raised close to $250,000 (US$157,000) toward the purchase of Todd’s Point, a 330 acre (132 hectare) property in the heart of the St. Croix Estuary. The point, a prominent headland that separates the St. Croix Estuary from Oak Bay, is located five miles down river from St. Stephen, New Brunswick and Calais, Maine. The property contains a diverse shoreline, rolling fields, a granite outlook with a spectacular view, birds and other wildlife, gardens and an orchard. It includes 160 acres (72 hectares) of intertidal land.

F. Whidden and Eleanor Ganong, of the chocolate making family, purchased the property in 1951. Before Whidden Ganong’s death in 2000, he tried unsuccessfully to have the property turned into a provincial park, so he specified in his will that SCEP could buy the property within a two year period for $350,000 - well below its market value - if it was turned into a nature park.

In January, SCEP, in partnership with the New Brunswick Nature Trust, launched a fund-raising campaign with the goal to raise $500,000 (US$314,000) for acquisition costs, infrastructure improvements and an endowment fund. As of October, they had received about $437,000 in pledges.

Mark Bader, SCEP’s executive director, said the property will be preserved as a public access point and nature refuge. “As more and more land increasingly falls under private ownership, Todd’s Point remains one of the few places in the St. Croix Estuary the public can come to enjoy this remarkable area,” he said.

For more information about the Todd’s Point campaign visit SCEP’s Web site at www.scep.org.

Stocking the Atlantic salmon

This fall, scientists in Maine stocked nearly 800 adult Atlantic salmon in the Dennys, Machias and St. Croix rivers as part of a multi-agency plan to conserve and restore wild Atlantic salmon populations. The five-year stocking program is the first attempt to stock adult Atlantic salmon in U.S. waters. It is the final phase of a project begun in 1997 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA fisheries), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maine's Atlantic Salmon Commission and private aquaculture companies in Maine.

The fish were spawned from broodstock at the Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery in 1997 and transferred as fertilized eggs to freshwater rearing stations run by Atlantic Salmon of Maine (ASM), a private aquaculture company. When they reached the smolt, or ocean-going, stage in 1999, they were transferred to ASM's marine sea cage facility.

Mary Colligan, head of the NOAA team working to help recover the endangered population of wild Atlantic salmon currently found in eight Maine rivers, pointed out that Atlantic salmon stocking programs usually place sexually immature fish into the rivers years before they are ready to spawn, adding, “In this stocking program, we were able to put adult fish into the water when they were ready to reproduce.”

The fish weighed an average of almost 18 pounds and measured almost three feet in length. Each female is capable of laying approximately 14,000 eggs in a series of nests, called redds, she digs in gravelly, fast-flowing sections of the river. Each salmon carries an implanted tag that will make it possible for scientists who encounter the fish later to know the date, time and location of stocking and some biological information about the individual fish.