CTFishTalk.com: Fall of New England's Cold Water Fisheries 1890-1910 Part 2 - Connecticut Saltwater Reports ( CT Saltwater Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

BlueChip

The Fall of New England’s Cold Water Fisheries 1890-1910
IMEP #55 B
Part I and Part II
Habitat Information for Fishers and Fishery Area Managers
Understanding Science Through History

(IMEP History Newsletters can be found indexed by date – Title on the BlueCrab.info™ website: Fishing, Eeling and Oystering thread) and on Connecticut Fish Talk™ (See Saltwater Reports thread)

The Sound School ISSP – Capstone Series
Do Climate Factors Lead to Habitat Failures?

Timothy C. Visel, Coordinator
The Sound School Regional Vocational Aquaculture Center
60 South Water Street
New Haven, CT 06519
Revised for Capstone/SAE Proposals, July 2015

How Did Heat and City “Wastes” Bring Disease and Pollution To The Coast?
A Sound School Capstone Proposal-
“Building an Environmental Fisheries History for Coastal Habitats”
ASTE Performance Standards. Aquaculture #4, #5, #6, #8;
and Natural Resources #6, #4, #9, #14

This is part of a two part series -

Continued…

Dams for example, had greatly altered the energy pathways of New England streams as the climate moderated in the 1890s creating some of the first thermal pollution events slowing and heating water and collecting organics behind them. Many cool high energy streams were transitioned to low energy impoundments with “pond fish” as habitats changed as warm water discharges from streets added to the thermal conditions downstream. Brook trout populations soon declined when their habitat quality lessened, as “warm water” fish increased. The impacts of organic material in high heat however, would be displaced by a focus upon chemical pollution measures. This was very visible and also toxic. In terms of organic inputs nature got a free pass – as leaves replaced manure as an organic input, a chief component of the Saprobien System. Many states in response to the high heat habitat failure, (mostly from organic matter in high heat) the loss of native brook trout simply introduced more heat tolerant species such as brown and rainbow trout.
Present day analytical pollution indications based upon unnatural or manmade chemicals do not share the concepts of the Saprobien System. It did not for example include fixed nitrogen in organic matter nor the concept of “energy” having a habitat role. It did, however, open the door to dilution/pollution protocols that were the advance of later broader concepts such as Cap and Trade under maximum loads or threshold limits known as total maximum daily loads or “TMDL”.
Against the concept of TMDL or regulatory limit thresholds is this question-- would a long term environmental fisheries history and habitat quality review be subject to the same point of time discussion? This is also viewed or termed today as “snapshot ecology” not as much of a biological feature or description of life sciences but a point of time measure. In the apparent void of environmental history public policy makers just filled in the blank with the most appropriate response, it must be “us.” Unfortunately climate cycles did not get a look. When high heat drove cooler water fish out, fishers were blamed for empty nets. When heat altered organic matter reduction on land farmers were blamed for pollution. That is how many groups tried to restore “bay scallops” to very warm sulfide rich coastal waters or when the southern New England lobster population died off in the late 1990s very few lobster fishers knew about a similar die-off that had happened before a century ago in the same waters. Each group had no sense of a long term environmental fisheries history (without such a long term view public policy mistakes can be made - My view.) Farmers who had spread manure on fields watched as now warm “open” winter rains washed it away.
At the same time bay scallops and lobsters were in decline a century ago, blue crabs and oyster recruitment would now surge to high production levels often in the same general habitats? When compared to toxic TMDL limits these reversals defy regulatory explanation? It also introduces a bias in many current studies that should we include environmental fisheries history that discusses natural climate cycles in all impact investigations? The largest problem for very shallow water habitat is the environmental impact of bacterial sulfate products of organic matter marine composting (ammonia). Sapropel would be completely missed in the current “benthic flux” TMDL nitrogen discussions. In times of climate change in increasingly hot waters, would continued nitrogen reduction yield any measurable seafood benefits? In warm water (that can only hold so much oxygen) is able to hold more oxygen in waters containing less nitrogen? No, and why the reduction of nitrogen needs to be reexamined by many estuary programs (my view). This is being discussed currently by The Indian River (Florida) Estuary Program and others in our region.
In times of heat and low energy conditions it may be natural to have organic deposits deepen and then putrefy. Could these organic deposits then foster fish and shellfish diseases that would not be present in times of great cold; that answer is “yes,” they could and the first group to ask questions about this were inshore fishers. Just prior to a fishery collapse often comes disease – a warning that fishers often provide.
Lobster Bacterial Disease 1974 to 2008
As temperatures moderated at the 1980s, lobster fishers from Point Judith for years had asked questions and expressed concern about “sewage sludge.” In a May 22, 1988 New York Times article titled “Shell Bacteria Kill East Coast Lobsters near Ocean Dump” lobster fishers beginning in 1974 expressed concerns about the impacts of sludge upon lobster shell disease. Slight organic deposits dumped offshore in colder waters actually had improved fishing. The organic debris in oxygen sufficient waters quickly enters the marine chain in effect dumping potential food for shrimp who can burrow into it and consume it. The shrimps attract larger predatory fish, such as winter flounder (years ago organic matter was dumped in eastern CT, shortly afterward the chumming impacts” for fish became well known in the recreational fishery.) Lobsters and then crabs move to the area also in search of food. But in high heat this organic matter rots in low oxygen conditions and now contains bacteria that in colder periods would not flourish. Some of the symptoms would later appear as winter flounder fin rot or shell disease in lobsters. The New York Times article contains a statement of Bruce Estrada, a marine biologist for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries then. “Mr. Estrada said the bacteria,” which breeds in the mud of lobster grounds often breaks out into an epidemic in vicinity of sewage dumps or dredge spots where large amounts of organic sludge collects such as in Boston Harbor” (May 22, 1988, pg 1).
The first occurrence of a problem of bacterial disease was traced to the shallow water sludge dump sites in the New York Bight in the 1970s. These sludge deposits often contained bacterial stains listed as antibiotic resistant. (Contaminant effects of a Biota of the New York Bight, Joel S. O’Connor, NOAA, MESA project)

Shellfish Disease Vectors (1890-1920)
Some of the first connections to bacterial oysters contaminated by human sewage are disease outbreaks associated with oysters grown in sewage contaminated waters and warm weather. Colder temperatures restrained bacteria growth and it was the increase of warmer often hot temperatures and unsafe sanitation practices that frequently accompanied the worst human outbreaks. The period 1905-1918 was very tough on the New England oyster industry. Cholera, typhoid and even scarlet fever outbreaks were rightly or wrongly all traced to oysters grown in shallow warm waters and often contaminated by sewage. The colder 1870s had few such complaints and the industry adopted practices of freshening or floating oysters in brackish waters (to gain fullness meat volume and in some cases weight just prior to sale. Unfortunately these same brackish waters were now contaminated with pathogens from human waste and this practice soon identified as a disease factor. At first “slow waters” with human sewage drifted amongst specially designed oyster “floats”. This contamination soon moved beyond the brackish waters used for floating into the production areas themselves. Poor sanitation of meat preparation shucking and shipping was also suspected. In high heat bacteria most likely thrived on surfaces and no doubt often at times contaminated packing and shipping containers. The result of when all contribute to “disease outbreaks.”
Milk Disease Vectors (1890-1920)
What was plaguing the shellfish industry was also hurting farmers. In the 1870s milk cans required little cooling for most of the year, but in the late 1890s even the winters here were warm. Bacterial diseases linked to contaminated milk was highlighted in the press (also the problem of milk adulteration often itself with contaminated water) and death rates upon babies in cities soared called Infantile Diarumim. New Haven had one of the highest incidences and some of the most notorious outbreaks traced here to bad batches of raw milk. Many of the studies by Sheffield Institute, now Yale University documented the deaths of babies by disease that was mostly likely from the description the Campylobacter bacterial strain.
Winters Warm Again in the 1990s
When hot weather returned so did bacterial disease concerns in both oysters and milk again. The summer of 2012 which most likely by the highest water temperature New England has seen since 1912 had bacteria multiply in the warm water and again occur in raw milk. One farm in Pennsylvania was linked to a campylobacter bacterial infection in four states.
The 2012 outbreak of bacterial infections was traced back to raw milk contaminated by Campylobacter, although raw milk can vector salmonella listeria e.coli and others according to a February 5, 2012 New Haven Register article titled “Outbreak of Bacterial infections Sour Suspensions Of Farm’s Raw Milk Sales.” Raw milk from a Pennsylvania dairy was linked to 38 cases of bacterial infections in four states sold to consumers who wanted unpasteurized (raw) milk. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) pointed out that “raw milk killed many people, especially young people before the onset of pasteurization, when kills disease causing germs by heating milk to high temperatures for a specific period of time.” The shellfish industry was rocked, also in 2013 with an outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus which included cases here in CT.
Shellfish regulators in that instance quickly shut down shallow warm waters containing these marine bacterial strains and reopened them when waters cooled.
It is thought that 2013 was a peak heat year in a general warming period that started in 1972. The previous peak year was 1912 which followed a malaria outbreak in Greenwich and several outbreaks of Typhoid attributed to contaminated oysters.
Last year researchers at Oregon State correctly identified the vibrio bacteria that had killed some oyster larvae at West Coast oyster bacteria as Vibrio corillalyticus believed to infect warm water and contribute to coral bleaching around the world V coralliilyticus can infect fish, shellfish oysters including rainbow trout and larval brine shrimp. Oregon State University Press Release November 18, 2014.
Virulent bacteria affecting oysters are often found between Vibrio series to be a case of “mistaken identity”
What appears to be consistent with the vibrio series was its association with higher temperatures and organics. What bacteria thrived in this high heat organic deposits were more “deadly”. Clams and oysters also died off from disease outbreaks. As waters warmed in Southern New England, diseases that impacted people and the shellfish/finfish populations increased as well.
In our area, the diseases seemed to follow habitat transitions and in shallow areas a disappearing organic deposit that once served to blanket shellfish and finfish habitats. That is the rise of Sapropel habits. MSX for example in shallow waters (oysters) deep in organics, or winter flounder flesh eating bacteria.
Some of those habitats lobster fishers were concerned about lobster diseases in the 1970s. Some of the questions about sludge and bacterial diseases in fact date back decades were also from lobster fishers. (Shell Bacteria Kill East Coast Lobsters near Ocean Dump- the New York Times, May 22, 1988 page 1.)

Was Sapropel really missed?
As inshore fishers continues to ask questions about the buildup of organic matter upon coastal habitats as many estuary programs may now need to revise nitrogen TMDL allowances for second source nitrogen generation (benthic flux) but more properly termed Sapropelic mud or just Sapropel. It seems in many nitrogen allowances (Sapropel) was missed or under reported organic matter digestion– in TMDL allowances. As coastal waters warmed, lower oxygen levels (natural inverse in heat) bacterial sulfate reduction will increase. This will enhance the ability of Sapropel bottoms to kill all fish and shellfish eggs near them. Coastal residents often have not heard about Sapropel but many have experienced its early formation frequently called “Black Mayonnaise”. That omission is also under review in terms of climate cycles, a subset of today’s climate change debate. The absence of a discussion of Sapropel in several EPA national estuary programs is now obvious, and its absence now complicating shellfish and finfish resource assessments, estuarine models for nitrogen inputs and the potential impacts of climate cycles (see the NAO description on North Carolina climate website for a very good explanation of its coastal influence) upon nitrogen residence times.
But these issues are not new, or unknown, in fact these policy concerns were mentioned decades ago. One of the most detailed articles about Sapropel I have found was authored almost thirty years ago, and titled, “Is the Western Sound Dying?” (Long Island Sound Report- A publication of the Long Island Sound Task Force of the Oceanic Society, Vol. #3, #1, Spring 1986) written by Richard Harris.
In this article is a complete description upon fish and shellfish habitats of the negative impacts of Sapropel (chemically) which was first brought forward by Dr. Donald Rhoads of Yale University in the mid 1980s.
Mr. Harris writing on pages 9 to 10 quotes Dr. Rhoads’ research and comments:
“All pollutants put into the Sound, organic matter from sewage treatment plants and surface runoff go somewhere,” explains Rhoads” and my concern is that this stuff adheres to the bottoms of harbors and the deeper basins. “The result” he continues, “is the formation of a Black Mayonnaise-like material (Sapropelic mud) now all too familiar on the bottoms of many of our harbors at the western end of the Sound.” And further, “As the sediments become more reducing in character, sulfate reduction also takes place, producing hydrogen sulfide and methane, which further compounds the problem by consuming even more oxygen.” Pg 10. [The sulfate reduction is attributed to bacteria which in high organics/low oxygen and warm waters thrive. Some of the sulfur reducing bacteria is dangerous to us especially in deep cuts. T. Visel]
Summary-
The focus upon human events or impacts is not just confined to estuarine chemistry but also fisheries history (long term) and marine resource abundance. Few current documents today mention a short but very warm period in New England, 1880-1920 in which several water species “reversed”. Lobsters died off while blue crabs surged, bay scallop habitats failed in high heat only to make way for an increase in oysters, Halibut largely left New England waters for the cooler waters of the Northern Maritimes. Environmental history soon would mean only a collection of negative human impacts, and conservation and protection public policies to mirror those impacts. The agricultural community for its use of nitrogen would soon find the first regulators pollution response, although it was a natural substance. This has resulted in a recent habitat question: “Did We Make Nature Immune from our Nitrogen Study?” One aspect of finding blame for natural conditions started in Europe in the 1980s. Much of the blame then was first directed at the agricultural community. The same blame for warmer temperatures and organic reduction is often directed at our farmers as well.
Writing for the Irish Times, September 24, 1989, Michael Pollan an agriculture journalist wrote an article titled “A Swiss Defence of Farmers.” In the article he describes Lake Sempach in central Switzerland which is 282 feet deep and has water change duration (residence time) of 15 years.” In times of no concern raw sewage was dumped into the lake and animal manure added to nutrient enrichment. In 1984, the solution was to pump oxygen into the lake in summer and compressed air in the winter to counteract the effects of excessive nutrients. (This is very similar to aeration in waste water treatment plants.) It was an expensive solution but one that gained public support and farmers were a part of the solution process. The impact of farming upon the environment was a topic of increased awareness in Switzerland, in the 1980s so much so that the discussion turned to the idea that nature should be declared a legal entity with rights of its own which would make it as immune to exploit as man himself (Dr. Jorg Leimbacher, environmental attorney). And further, “any attempt to interface with nature such as through agriculture would be permissible under certain clearly defined conditions and with acceptable justification.” Mr. Dillon concerned with gaining legal entity to something as universal as “nature” commented that it would “create a marvelous industry for the lawyers and possibly even a sort of priesthood, while making life quite difficult and costly for ordinary citizens, including those who are not farming.”

A differing view is presented by Dr. Joseph Von Ah, who is mentioned in the same article by Mr. Dillon.
“A Swiss defense of farmers by Michael Dillon on Farming: “farmers would have preferred the presentations by Dr. Joseph Von Ah, who is the director of the Swiss Federal Research Station for Agricultural Chemistry and Environmental Hygiene. The existence of that station shows how seriously the Swiss regard the problems. Dr. Von Ah took the line that farmers are not always the villains in the environment, but are often the victims of pollution. While agricultural activity can contaminate water, air and soil, it has also shaped and moulded our landscape since time immemorial.
He went on to say human activity including farming will have detrimental effects on the environment, but the crucial factor was how much…
He maintained that, on balance, agriculture makes a net positive contribution to the ecosystems of the world. Agriculture’s energy consumption and output of waste are out weighted by its positive effects, redressing the oxygen imbalance, securing food supplies, and conserving the landscape. He said that effective strategies are imperative to prevent further damage to agriculture.”

And how much impact would be eclipsed by a public policy focus upon human impacts as a nitrogen reduction was connected to having more coastal resources – although significant pollution did happen, (producing nitrogen), a bias soon became evident as the 1980s drew to a close. The EPA funded estuary studies throughout the nation often had a focus upon the premise of EPA mission itself: “it must be us.” As lobsters died-off Blue Crabs soared and as Tautog populations collapsed Black Sea Bass reproductive capacity increased to levels not seen in previous population studies – it was not from us but long time cycles observed by fishers themselves (IMEP Newsletters #45, 44, 41 and 40 reviews many of the observations by John Hammond who urged study of the 1880 to 1920 period was a retired oyster grower on Cape Cod (see Blue Crab Forum™ - Fishing, Eeling, Oystering thread).
By 1910 the cold water fisheries of the 1870s were in “ruin.” Quahogs had declined to minor landings, New England had built or was building five lobster hatcheries to help a devastated Southern New England lobster industry.
Within five years, Gloucester Halibut fishers would strike a protest against a new type of fishing gear blamed for decreasing halibut catches – trawl nets when halibut had already left these warming waters.
The Narraganset Bay Deep Water Bay Scallop Fisheries and grounds was now covered by silt and vegetation.
Smelt also had declined, so had alewife. However, as these cold water fisheries declined, oysters flourished so were soft shell clams and blue crabs now supported commercial fisheries while pollution and overfishing was blamed for the demise of the cold water fisheries these conditions were rarely praised for the increase of others, that like warmer waters.
A century later the “Great Heat” returned creating a species reversal. Everything wrong with Long Island Sound was from “US” and made nature immune from inquiry- natural was “good” and unnatural- “bad”. Lost in the public policy debate was environmental history and the observations of those who fished its waters. At times, “nature” could turn against what we valued even if that was in fact natural.” Nowhere would “how much” be centered on nitrogen entering Long Island Sound. A public policy had set in of perception- everything wrong with Long Island Sound was from human actions. This includes many other estuary programs as well. How much impact was human and how much a natural cycle- that is a question that still remains to be answered. Several nitrogen abatement programs have focused upon ground water nitrogen while at the same time organic matter (nitrogen) mostly vegetation being swept in by heavy rains was not measured. Now questions that remain if nitrogen controls were made without bias considering these hot and cold periods, with or without Sapropel and may answer many of these bacterial disease and natural resource questions. The seafood question can be only answered by renewing our environmental fisheries history – long term.
Capstone Questions-
• Has Connecticut looked at its environmental history during hold and cold periods?
• Public health areas to look at – what did the debate between the Germ Theory vs. Maisima theory do for public policies? How was “heat involved?”
• Faced with unrelenting negative process (media articles linking Typhoid to oyster consumption) The National Shellfish Sanitation Program came into existence after a typhoid outbreak (1924) almost 3 decades after the first New Haven outbreak; why did it take so long for a national response?
• How did climate and milk diseases influence the acceptance of milk pasteurization? How did New Haven first react to the early pasteurization effort?
• The recent warm period saw concerned increase about vibrio bacteria: if it gets colder, can you make a prediction about vibrio outbreaks in the future?
• The nitrogen reduction policies of the last two decades have focused almost entirely on human inputs. Should other factors have been considered?
• Why did brook trout habitat fail in New England in the 1890s?
Although Tim Visel is a member of the Long Island Sound Study, the views expressed here do not in any way represent the official viewpoint or position of the Long Island Sound Study. The views reposted here are Tim Visel’s; no consensus hereby is reached regarding the impact of climate or energy upon bacterial disease or nitrogen levels or how these factors are related to seafood abundance.

STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS

Department of Environmental Management
DIVISION OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
Washington County Government Center
Tower Hill Road
Wakefield, R.I. 02879
April 22, 1982
Timothy Visel
Cape Cod Extension Office
Railroad Avenue
Barnstable, MA 02630

Dear Mr. Visel:
Dick Sisson asked me to respond to your letter of March 23 requesting information on seed oystering in upper Narragansett Bay between 1880 and 1920. I have enclosed that information which I have been able to sift out from the upper strata of our archives. Although this information contains some references to the seedy aspects of the oyster industry, I am not aware of any more specific information.
The Brooks book (reference enclosed) has apparently been stolen from the URI Library (Pell). I saw it several years ago, and I seem to recall a description of the Narragansett Bay oyster industry. I suggest you try to find a copy through your local sources.
A large quantity of oyster lease records was turned over to David Maslyn, an archivist at the URI Library (Kingston, RI 02881) several years ago. This included maps leased grounds covering some of the period you specified, as well blueprints of the triangulation stations used in establishing the boundaries. This may be a source of information useful to you, but I don’t remember any facts pertaining to oyster seed production. Of course, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance in dredging out information for you.
Sincerely,
John Karlsson
Marine Biologist
JK:ps
Enclosure
Rekeyed by Taylor Samuels, Communications, Sound School, 8/13/15

Appendix 2
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CAPE COD NITROGEN PROBLEM – HABITAT CYCLES
Tim Visel, November 2011

Opinion Editorial – Submitted to The Boston Globe Marjorie Pritchard
December 2, 2011
NO MENTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL FISHERIES HISTORY FOR CAPE COD SOLUTION – Boston Globe
Letter To The Editor – Not Published (submitted three times)
To: Marjorie Pritchard, Op-Ed Editor The Boston Globe

From: Tim Visel
Dear Editor Pritchard,
I read with great interest the excellent Boston Globe article written by David Abel “Searching for the Right Cure for Capes Algae – Choked Waters” (11/26/11).
This started off as a letter to the editor but after several rewrites Mr. Abel suggested an OP-Ed submission for consideration.
The Op-Ed article comes from decades of work at three Universities, The University of Massachusetts on Cape Cod 1981-83, The University of Rhode Island 1978-81 and the University of Connecticut 1978-90. I’m currently coordinator of The Sound School Regional Vocational Aquaculture School in New Haven, Connecticut and serve on two EPA committees for the Long Island Sound Study.
The viewpoint however is a personal one – gained from many field surveys and conversations with fishers in the coastal waters of New England.
The Cape Cod issue with nitrogen is a very difficult problem but perhaps your readers would like to read a different view on the matter.
Best regards, Tim Visel.
No Mention of Environmental Fisheries History for Cape Cod Nitrogen Problem
Cape Cod residents are wise to seek out and explore questions regarding habitat quality and investigate both regulatory and non-regulatory options to this habitat concern.
The impacts of nitrogen enrichment and excess vegetation has been the subject of much research and regulatory scrutiny since 1998. This issue also has been the subject of decades of personal inquiry, via historical fisheries research and fishermen interviews since 1972. During that year, shellfishing, was closed in Tom’s Creek, a small tidal creek next to my family home in Madison, CT – our favorite oyster and clamming area. Within two years of no shellfishing a thick blanket of ooze suffocated the oysters and clams killing them. By the time I began work with the University of Massachusetts Cape Cod Extension Service in Barnstable a decade later, I was very familiar with “Black Mayonnaise” and how it could change habitats. I used the term frequently at local Connecticut Shellfish Commission meetings in CT from 1978 on. It then followed me to the Cape.
It was sad to see shellfishermen on the Cape facing the same habitat transition Connecticut shellfishers had seen years before and that nitrogen and sewage were prime targets three decades ago. But some of the retired shellfishermen on the Cape urged caution. They had heard or experienced this nutrient enhanced plant growth before, when it got hot and when we had little in the way of strong storms at the turn of the century. While nitrogen was a large problem, especially in the poorly flushed, sluggish coves, they urged me to look below layers of Black Mayonnaise and examine the “real bottoms.” Often it contained two layers, a habitat history especially for oysters. The real bottom to them was from the 1940s – marking a gradual decline (loss) of habitat quality. John Clint Hammond of Chatham and John Farrington, both shellfishers, urged me also to look at the impact of temperature and energy, and I did. I learned a great deal from the shellfishermen on the Cape.
The so-called Great Heat (1880-1920) caused many of the first New England shore communities to be built. Summers were often brutally hot especially in 1896, and winters were generally mild. Coves in many coastal areas stagnated, stank and fish died often by the millions. In 1905 the water temperature in July at Wickford, Rhode Island reached 82o F; barracuda were caught on area beaches. Lobsters perished and bay scallops disappeared. Habitats transitioned during The Great Heat that eelgrass became so thick in the Poquonnock River in Groton, Connecticut it was declared a public health hazard. All this would change however during the New England Oscillation of 1951-1964 with much colder winters and many powerful storms. Storm energy (waves and tides) washed organic matter (nitrogen sinks) from bays and coves; inlets widened; barrier beaches split when waves scoured and recultivated bay bottoms leaving firmer, “cleaner” sandy areas covered with bivalve shell. The age of the bay scallop and winter flounder were upon us. Lobsters also recovered in southern areas rejuvenated by thousands of acres of near-shore kelp/cobblestone habitat. That would change again as hot periods (such as the one we are in now) with few storms occurred. Until recently, heat produces a much different habitat condition. Inlets and barrier breaks tend to heal (close) tidal exchange is reduced; and bay bottoms tend to become softer and muck covered and smell of rotten eggs at night caused by oxygen loss and exhibit acidic conditions, thanks to a greatly renewed oak tree forest. Increasing the tidal exchange is probably the only viable tool in our management capacity to reverse these habitat conditions. This is natural, shellfishers would probably comment that in general Cape Cod bay bottoms are softer now then before and that is why. When it is hot, nitrogen is a huge issue; when it is cold, it is not.
Much has been promised to coastal residents in New England about nitrogen reduction and the return of sea life. Without examining the impact of energy systems (long term) and climate (temperature), most of these resource assurances will bare little fruit. For many species, the seafood cupboard will remain empty for decades until it gets cold – again.
A long-term habitat history and environmental fisheries history is desperately needed for the Cape as it is for other coastal areas. The decline in habitat quality is not always about our involvement – nature has a say also. Missing from the excellent article was a discussion about climate and storm activity and the fisheries from habitat changes over time. The Cape Cod resident needs to understand that environmental fisheries has a habitat history relationship – it is an important one.
I met with shellfishermen on Cape Cod three decades ago who shared their knowledge about temperature and energy changes. They were very much stewards of the area environmental fisheries history. All of us could benefit from their experiences. They urged caution before attributing habitat changes just from nitrogen alone; it is just a piece of a very complicated habitat puzzle. I also would urge the same caution before the Cape spends billions of dollars that decades from now could be explained by climate and energy cycles.
As for Connecticut, our habitats continue to transition into what is now a four- decade-long warm period – our conch population (channel whelk) is soaring; oyster sets are excellent; and 2010 was the Connecticut blue crab year of the century – the best since 1912. Conch, blue crabs and oysters do well in warm periods – winter flounder, bay scallops and lobsters do not.
Tim Visel

Appendix 3

PAGE 8 CAPE COD TIMES, THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1984

SCIENTISTS SEEK INPUT ON OXYGEN DEPLETION

Upton, N.Y. – Marine scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory are conducting a research study dealing with oxygen depletion of salt water along the mid-Atlantic coast, from North Carolina to Maine.
They would like to receive first-hand reports from shore residents and others who are familiar enough with a body of salt water to recognize some of the unusual or abnormal things that occur as a result of oxygen depletion. The study deals with salt water only in coastal areas or in estuaries, not with fresh water.

The scientists are interested in information on the following things, particularly if they have occurred since 1970: fish kills, red tides, algae blooms or scums, unusual smells (especially sulfurous bottom mud), the disappearance of “regular” marine life (fish, plants, or birds), and the appearance of “new” marine life.

The results of the research study will be important to people who live in coastal areas because oxygen depletion can destroy marine resources, particularly fish and shellfish.
Anyone who can contribute information is invited to write or call Terry Whitledge, Ocean Sciences Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, N.Y. 11073; telephone (516)208-2965.

State of Connecticut
Report of Fish and Game Commissioners
1911-1912

Commissioners:
__________________

Frank W. Hewes, M.D., President
Groton, Conn.

E. Hart Geer, Secretary,
Hadlyme, Conn.

Frank O. Davis,
Pomfret, Conn.

Lobsters. Through enactment of the Legislature of 1905, the propagation of the lobster was placed in control of this Commission. Previous to this little or no attention was given to lobster protection and none to artificial propagation.
The statistics collected by the United States Bureau of Fisheries in 1908 shows there were TEN persons pursuing the occupation of lobster fishing at Noank. In 1912 your Commission issued thirty-two permits for persons to engage in the lobster fishing. This number does not include quite a number of persons who confine their fishing operations in New York waters, but who live in and bring their product to Noank, and who take out no permit from this Commission.

The Acts of 1907 require lobster fishermen to furnish statistics of the fishery, and we find, at that time, 247 people engaged in lobster fishing, with a product of 391,203 pounds of lobsters, valued at $56,475.00. The statistics for 1912 show 498 permits issued by the Commission. The produce amounting to 514,579 pounds of lobsters at a value of $76,986.00. This increase, perhaps, serves as an index to the extension of the fishery.

NEW HAVEN.—“ Not many lobsters this year. There are quite a few small lobster. No egg lobsters have been caught in three years.”

NIANTIC.—“Lobsters scarce; more small ones than last year.”

MADISON.—“ I have noticed a large number of very small lobsters the whole season for taking in deep water. Egg lobsters are quite plentiful now, and these I find in shoal water close to the shore.”

MYSTIC.—“ Large lobsters have been very scarce. Small lobsters from four to seven inches long have been plentiful.”

GUILFORD.—“ The marked increase of small lobsters is very gratifying, and is sufficient proof that the hatchery is one of the greatest institutions in the State, and I shall do all I can to help the Commissioners of Fisheries and Game in the protection and propagation.”

EAST RIVER.—“ A large number of very small lobsters.”

BRANFORD.—“ Early in the season lobsters seemed to be plentiful enough, but towards the end they became scarce. there are a lot of undersize lobsters in this vicinity which I think will be of size next season. Most of these seem to be perfect and not injured in any way. These undersize lobsters seem to stay in one place.”

CLINTON.— “Small lobsters have seemed more plentiful for the last two seasons, but it may be because there are fewer big ones. Little ones are not apt to get into pots when there are large ones around.”

COS COB.—“ Large quantities of small lobsters this year. More than usual.”

ROWAYTON.—“ I found plenty of small lobsters, but the large ones were scarce.”

NOANK.—“The Sound off Noank was full of small lobsters all summer, from two to four inches long.”

STONY CREEK. —“ I find a large number of very small lobsters the past two years of a size that I have not caught at any time previous to last year. Have fished lobsters about 18 years. My report includes last fall after the report was sent in, as I lobstered to December 1st.”

WESTBROOK.—“There were lots of small lobsters. Should be better next season.”

WATERFORD.—“ The lobsters were more than last year. There has been more small lobsters this year than I have seen before in eight years, so it looks more encouraging than it was for four years. Lots of small ones.”

STONINGTON.—“ Lobsters were few, that is large ones, but there were a large number of short ones, and a large number of them from five to seven inches long.”

STAMFORD.—“ I have found lobsters very scarce. Plenty of small ones not fit to sell.”

Noank Station. In procuring the eggs for the operation of this Station the same general policy has been pursued as heretofore, by purchasing the adult lobster with the egg attached. These were collected from the fishermen the entire length of the coast, who are paid the full market price. After the eggs have been removed and placed in the hatching jars, the parent lobsters are returned to the waters of Long Island Sound, as near the same locality as possible from which they were taken.

During the biennial period 1,474 ripe egg lobsters have been collected, from which 25,585,990 eggs were obtained, resulting in the hatching of 22, 750,000 fry which were planted in the coast waters.
During this same period there were also collected 1,586 green egg lobsters, making a total of 3,060 egg bearing lobsters collected, of which number 1,586 were held in cars during the winters, and the balance, 536, were returned to the water.
In the seven years of the operation of this hatchery, 208,761,870 fry have been hatched and liberated.

The lobster fishery in the State of Maine is the largest in the United States, and nearly 14,000 egg lobsters were collected the past season for the Federal hatchery at Boothbay Harbor. This is the largest collection ever made in one season. Conditions in the other New England States indicate a material decrease in the egg lobster collections with a corresponding reduction in hatcheries output.

The Noank Station was visited by a representative of a foreign country who showed much interest in the hatching operations at this station. Your Commission supplied several adult lobsters to the Wickford Experiment Station in order that this representative could observe the practical methods as conducted by the Rhode Island Commission.