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News From Member Institutions
Site Reports
MASS CZM - Mass. Coastal Zone Management
Sept 2007
Rep: Bruce Carlisle, Acting Director
Alternate: Todd Callaghan
Events and Happenings Seafloor mapping data has arrived
A team of Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists last week embarked on a mission to map the seafloor of Cape Cod Bay – the latest phase of a four-year-old project that has already mapped nearly 500 square miles of the ocean bottom from the New Hampshire border to Nantasket Beach.
Seafloor mapping is an important tool for protecting fish habitat, illustrating potential areas of sand resources for beach nourishment projects, and delineating appropriate areas for ocean-based construction as well as for marine reserves.
“While most terrestrial landscapes were mapped long ago, much of the ocean floor remains uncharted,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles, whose office includes CZM. “By providing unparalleled views of the seafloor, this joint project with the U.S. Geological Survey promises to increase scientists’ understanding of the ocean environment, improve regulators’ capacity to manage ocean and coastal resources, and inspire greater appreciation for the diversity of life and habitats in the Commonwealth’s waters.”
Photographs, video, and sediment samples collected during a nine-day survey, which wraps up Friday, will be combined with sonar data previously collected in Cape Cod Bay to produce high-resolution seafloor maps. Maps produced by the CZM-USGS Seafloor Mapping Initiative will guide ocean management and habitat protection, the review and siting of ocean construction projects, and future research. Since its inception in 2003, the Initiative has published seafloor maps of the North Shore and Boston Harbor. Maps covering Ipswich Bay (Salisbury to Cape Ann) are expected to be published at the end of this year, and those for Cape Cod Bay in 2009.
While USGS is working on smaller mapping projects throughout the United States, the scale of seafloor mapping of state waters and the degree of resource sharing between state and federal agencies for the Massachusetts project is unprecedented. CZM-USGS maps and digital data are being published online and on DVDs, and distributed to natural resource management and science communities throughout New England.
The multi-year project was launched with $1.5 million in habitat restoration and mitigation funding from the Algonquin Gas Transmission Company’s “HubLine” natural gas pipeline – a 29.4-mile pipe that runs from Salem and Beverly to Weymouth. Additional project funding includes $1 million in state appropriations and, most recently, $3 million from a mitigation package associated with the Northeast Gateway Deepwater Port liquefied natural gas project that will be located 13 miles southeast of Gloucester. All monies are held in CZM’s Seafloor Mapping Trust. To date, the project has spent approximately $3.5 million in state and federal funds, with USGS providing a one-to-one match of state and mitigation funds since 2004.
Data collected by CZM and USGS during this week’s mapping cruise will be used to verify – or “groundtruth” – acoustic imagery collected in Cape Cod Bay using various sonar technologies earlier this year and in 2006. Detailing topography and geology, water depths and associated organisms, the maps are revealing a more diverse seafloor than scientists previously thought existed off of the Massachusetts coast. Bottom types include boulder reefs and cobble habitats important to Atlantic cod and lobster, “sand wave” areas used by clams and flounder, and deep, muddy basins that support burrowing species such as anemones and fish such as winter flounder.
Apr 2007
Rep: Bruce Carlisle, Acting Director
Alternate: Todd Callaghan
Employment and Funding Opportunities
Water Quality Toolpack
CZM is seeking a qualified contractor to assist in the development of training resources related to the use of the CZM Digital Water Quality Tool Pack-a set of digital water quality tools to assist monitoring organizations in managing and analyzing water quality data collected in coastal watersheds. The selected contractor will conduct trainings with watershed groups, state and local government, and others involved in water quality monitoring efforts, and enter relevant data that has been or will be collected during the course of the contract. To view the RFR, visit the Comm-PASS website (http://www.comm-pass.com/)and search for document number "ENV 07 CZM 10." Proposals are due by April 13.
Gulf of Maine Action grants
The Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment is seeking applications from non-government organizations for grants that forward the goals of its new Action Plan (http://www.gulfofmaine.org/actionplan/). These grants fund local initiatives in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia that support the Council's priority goals of protecting and restoring coastal and marine habitat, protecting human health and ecosystem integrity, and encouraging sustainable maritime activities. For more information on the grant program, see the Council's website (http://www.gulfofmaine.org/actionplan/grant/apply/). Applications are due by May 15.
Priority Coastal Wetlands Restoration Projects
(http://www.mass.gov/czm/wrp/projects_pages/priority_projects.htm)
CZM's Wetlands Restoration Program (WRP) has issued its annual call for Priority Coastal Wetland Restoration Projects. Each fiscal year, depending on available program funds, existing workload, and staff resources, WRP designates a limited number of priority projects. Sites that are accepted as priority projects are eligible to receive technical services funded by WRP, such as wetland delineation, elevation survey, mapping and site planning, hydraulic analyses, impact assessments, title and deed exams, permitting, and monitoring. Designated priority projects are also eligible to apply for funding under WRP's grants program to support monitoring and construction-related needs. For FY07, the anticipated values of WRP-funded technical assistance and grants programs are $400,000 and $200,000, respectively. Projects designated as priority projects by WRP in previous rounds (FY04 - FY06) do not need to re-apply. To view the RFR, visit the Comm-PASS Website (http://www.comm-pass.com/) and search for document number "ENV 07 CZM 03." The priority project nomination period is open until May 15.
New Research Activities / Highlights
Seafloor Mapping
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) Woods Hole Science Center initiated the Seafloor Mapping Cooperative in 2003 to address the need for acquiring datasets on the spatial distribution of benthic resources to help resource management. The goal of the cooperative is to comprehensively map the seafloor in Massachusetts. Sonar – or acoustic – systems, including swath bathymetry, sub-bottom profiling, and sidescan sonar, are used to map the physical structure of the seafloor. The sonar data are ground truthed using underwater imagery and benthic grabs. From 2003-2006, 897 km2 (346 mi2) of seafloor were mapped, with an additional 300 km2 (116 mi2) planned in 2007. Maps and geospatial data are available for the North Shore (Gloucester to Nahant; http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/pubs/of2005-1293/), Boston Harbor (http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/pubs/of2006-1008/) and eastern Cape Cod (http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/pubs/of2005-1048/), and in preparation for Ipswich Bay (Cape Ann to Salisbury), the South Shore, and western Cape Cod Bay (Hull to Sagamore). Mapping in Massachusetts waters seamlessly meshes with existing seafloor charts from western Massachusetts Bay, Stellwagen Bank, and Jeffreys Ledge (http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/coastal_mass/index.htm).
Coastal and marine Habitat Classification Feasibility Study
The objective of this project is to apply four pre-selected habitat classification frameworks to the coastal and ocean environment in northern Massachusetts, display and describe results of each framework, and compare results and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each habitat classification framework.
The four habitat classification frameworks being applied to northern Massachusetts include:
Greene, H.G., J.J. Bizzarro, V. O’Connell and C.K. Brylinsky. In press. Construction of digital potential marine benthic habitat maps using a coded classification scheme and their application. In H.G. Greene and B.J. Todd (eds.) , Mapping the Seafloor for Habitat Characterization. Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 47.
Kutcher, T.E., N.H. Garfield, and K.B. Raposa. 2005 (draft). A recommendation for a comprehensive habitat and land use classification system for the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. National Estuarine Research Reserve, Estuarine Reserves Division. Draft report to NOAA/NOS/OCRM. Silver Spring, MD. 26 pp
Madden, C.J., D.H. Grossman, and K.L. Goodin. 2005. Coastal and Marine Systems of North America: Framework for an Ecological Classification Standard: Version II. NatureServe, Arlington, VA.
Valentine, P.C., B.J. Todd and V.E. Kostylev. 2005. Classification of marine sublittoral habitats, with application to the northeastern North America region. American Fisheries Society Symposium 41:183-200.
Water Quality and Eelgrass Restoration
CZM and the MassBays Program gathered data on the water quality conditions (nutrients, total suspended matter, chl a, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen) in Cohasset Harbor, to address concerns about an expanded wastewater facility and lobster mortality. The MassBays Program began a monitoring program to describe current WQ conditions and to evaluate WQ in relation to eelgrass beds at the outer harbor. The MassBays Program hopes to expand the monitoring to other areas in the region and evaluate water quality conditions of eelgrass beds with varying degree of health.
The Executive Office of Environmental Affairs funded a volunteer monitoring grant for Duxbury Bay Management Commission to use Photosynthetic Active Radiation sensors to determine the light extinction coefficient in the harbor. Similarly, DEP has hired a contractor to establish light extinction coefficient in several coastal areas.
CZM is also developing an eelgrass restoration plan for the Great Marsh on the north shore. Water clarity, temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen were measured throughout the Annisquam River and Gloucester Harbor from June - October 2006. Results of this study will improve the understanding of environmental characteristics important to eelgrass and guide restoration planning.
Salt Marsh Assesment
CZM and MassBays Program are about to complete a final version of a salt marsh assessment approach that was developed to assess wetland condition using a Rapid Assessment Method (RAM). The method follows the EPA guidelines to develop a three-tiered approach to assessing wetland condition by combining portions of the top two tiers (a landscape, office-based method (Tier 1) with a field-based method (Tier 2) to create our RAM, and we think it can be applied to assess tidal wetlands on a state-wide or watershed-wide (or region-wide) scale. The sampling approach is a randomly stratified method. This work complements a previously-developed approach for Tier 3 intensive biological monitoring, as described in the CZM/MassBays salt marsh monitoring guide for volunteers. CZM/MassBays are currently putting in a proposal to EPA to produce a formal workbook/training manual for others to use. All states are required by EPA to develop and put in place a method for assessing wetland condition by 2011. Only two other states have worked on a method for tidal marshes (California and Delaware). MA DEP is looking to begin development of an approach for freshwater wetlands.
Invasive Species Assessment
MIT Sea Grant’s Judy Pederson and MassBays Program’s Jan Smith have planned a third Rapid Assessment Survey for marine invasive species the last week of July, 2007 for the Gulf of Maine region.
CZM is working with other state agencies to develop a statewide invasive species monitoring systems and rapid response protocol (also a data management system with MIT Seagrant).
Wetlands Restoration
The CZM Wetlands Restoration Program has completed four tidal wetland restoration projects in the past year for 45 acres under restoration. Regarding Herring River, the town has established a committee to develop a restoration plan, and technical work continues on the project.
Evaluation of Stormwater BMPs
CZM had a consultant evaluate 37 stormwater BMPs that were installed as part of the Coastal Pollutant Remediation Program. Only 27% were found to be functional (27% were completely not functional and the rest were impaired). The most common cause of impairment was sediment buildup, though a close second most common cause of impairment was the lack of a hooded discharge.
Dec 2006
Rep: Todd Callaghan
New Research Activities / Highlights
Eelgrass restoration/transportation
Bathymetrical Mapping of Mass. waters (including LIDAR for near shore)
Invasive species monitoring and establishment of voucher specimens and a taxonomic specialist network
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