Atlantic CoastWatch March-April 2000

Sand Mining Off Jersey Shore?

News For Coastal Advocates
A Perth Amboy, New Jersey company called Amboy Aggregates seeks
permission from the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) a division of
the Department of the Interior, to scrape sand and gravel from about 100 square z
miles of ocean floor off the Jersey coast. If granted, the lease would be the nation’s
first for commercial sand and gravel mining in US federal waters. Sand Mining 1
Some local environmentalists, many of them not able to squeeze into a
recent MMS public hearing where most attendees in a crowded room were Amboy Greener Caribbean 1
employees or other project advocates, are apprehensive. Negative impacts on
fish, sea turtles and surf clams are feared as consequences of sweeping the sea Sayings 2
bottom clear of sediments and marine life living in or on them, and disturbing
seaweed beds. Much of the sand to be dredged would end up in beach replenish-
ment schemes that many environmentalists also disapprove of.
Desalinization Hopes 3

“This is not really an experiment,” counters oceanographer Henry State Aids Feds 3
Bokuniewicz of the Marine Sciences Research Center at the State Univer-
sity of New York-Stony Brook. “It may be new to us. But in many other parts of Publications
the world—Denmark, Belgium, Hong Kong, and elsewhere—sand mining and
4
fisheries have co-existed with really not much to complain about on technical
grounds. The management procedures are very sophisticated.” Amboy had NAFTA vs. NYC 5
previously applied for permission to mine the entire NewYork Bight. Approving
that would have been “kind of crazy,” Bokuniewicz admits. But he cannot work up Underwater Noise 5
much antagonism to the more limited proposal.

By early to midsummer, says Renee Orr of MMS, her agency expects to Climate Concerns 6
have reached a decision as to whether to carry out the environmental study that is
required prior to granting a lease. A decision not to perform the study kills the Saharan Dust 6
project, an outcome fervently favored by New Jersey shore Congressman Frank
J. Pallone Jr. URL: www.mms.gov.intermar/marineac.htm
z

Recurring:
Toward Greener Caribbean Tourism
People; Species & Habitats;
For many decades, while owners and managers of some small ecotourism
facilities in the Caribbean were promoting and upholding high environmental
Restorations; Report Cards;
standards, sloppy waste management practices continued to prevail at the larger Products; Funding; Job Open-
scale. Developers who often cut corners usually got the breaks they wanted from ings; Upcoming Events
governments. But more recently, according to Bruce Potter of the Washington,
DC and Tortola-based Island Resources Foundation, “A better sense of steward-
ship is occurring.” Atlantic CoastWatch is a bimonthly
nonprofit newsletter, free of charge,
One reason, Potter says, is that affected local communities have begun to for those interested in the
voice a “proper sense of outrage” more loudly. Another is a European Community environmentally sound develop-
regulation holding Europe-based tour operators liable for accidents to their ment of the coastline from the Gulf
customers in the Caribbean. At a time when Caribbean tourism is winning a of Maine to the Eastern Caribbean.
lessening share of the world market, Potter says that the region has become more The newsletter is available on paper
keenly aware that it needs to uphold quality and pull up its socks where needed. and at www.susdev.org
(Continued, p. 7)
 2
Atlantic CoastWatch
Sayings
Vol. 4, No. 2
Following up on the recently-issued Troubled Waters report criticizing
A project of the Sustainable many US Army Corps of Engineers activities as being wasteful and environ-
Development Institute, which seeks mentally destructive (see Report Cards, p. 5), the Raleigh News & Observer issued
to heighten the environmental quality a hearty amen. The report ranked the old idea of stabilizing North Carolina’s Oregon
of economic development efforts, in Inlet with long jetties as among the Corps “Top 10 Most Wasteful Projects.”
the Atlantic coastal zone and in forest
regions, by communicating informa- “Junk the jetties for good,” echoed the News & Observer. “The idea of
tion about better policies and prac- building two rock jetties on either side of Oregon Inlet between Bodie and Hatteras
tices. SDI is classified as exempt from islands on North Carolina’s Outer Banks has been contentious for more than 30
federal income tax under section years. Coastal politicians...have kept the project alive in spite of consistent opposi-
501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code tion from scientists, environmentalists, and the National Park Service, among
as an organization described in section others.
501(c)(3).
Commercial and sport fishermen, along with their political supporters, say
Board of Directors the pair of mile-long jetties would stabilize an unstable inlet they need to reach the
ocean. Environmentalists and geologists make a stronger case, however, when
Robert J. Geniesse, Chairman they predict that the jetties would disrupt the normal flow of water and sand on
Roger D. Stone, President either side of Oregon Inlet and would do more damage than good. The latest round
Hart Fessenden, Treasurer of criticism simply bolsters that solid argument. It is past time to put this bad idea to
Hassanali Mehran, Secretary bed, for good.”
Edith A. Cecil
David P. Hunt z
Freeborn G. Jewett, Jr.
Gay P. Lord In our January-February 2000 issue we reported the tale of Portsmouth,
New Hampshire fisherman John Rosa. Twice over the holidays he went far off-
Advisers shore in bad weather and ran into trouble. The tightening regulatory environment,
said Rosa, compelled him to take more chances. Our article evoked this reaction.
William H. Draper III
Joan Martin-Brown Dear Coastwatch:

Scintific Advisory Council I very much enjoy reading Atlantic CoastWatch and feel overall you do a
great job addressing coastal issues. But I must take issue with the story about John
Gary Hartshorn Rosa. His taking more risk due to regulations is emotional bunk and only presents
Stephen P. Leatherman the side fishermen wish to see to gather support to stop new regulations from being
Jerry R. Schubel drafted and enacted. The Portsmouth “fleet” is made up of a hard working bunch
Christopher Uhl who operate small coastal vessels . Yes, they have been hard pressed to make a
living, especially as new regulations go into effect which in their minds favor the
Staff larger offshore vessels. No one forced this guy to go out in rough winter conditions.
He chose to, and I’m sure he’ll play this trick again as long as someone listens to his
Roger D. Stone, Director & President tale and gives him some press. Let’s just hope he won’t kill himself or some other
Shaw Thacher, Project Manager crew member to make his emotional but not substantiated point.
Robert C. Nicholas III, Contributing
Editor Steve J. Miller
Laura W. Roper, Correspondent Rye, New Hampshire

2000 Major Donors

The M.O. & M.E. Hoffman Foundation With Appreciation

Mad River Foundation
The Moore Charitable Foundation
The Curtis & Edith Munson Foundation
Sponsored Projects
Trees for DC
Environmental Film Festival in the
Nation’s Capital
Printed by Ecoprint on 20% postconsumer waste paper
using vegetable oil based inks free of toxic metals.
Our warmest thanks to The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation and
The Marion O. and Maximilian E. Hoffman Foundation for stepping forward
with increments of major assistance for Atlantic CoastWatch at a critical moment.
We also extend deep appreciation to the Mad River Foundation for renewing its
much-needed support, and to The Moore Charitable Foundation for its most
welcome grant.
Fully tax-deductible contributions to the Sustainable Development
Institute, earmarked for Atlantic CoastWatch, remain an urgent need.
They may be sent to us at 3121 South Street NW, Washington, DC 20007.
 3
People
Desalinization Hopes & Fears Mindy S. Lubber, formerly acting
administrator, has been named
Brockton, an industrial town in southeastern Massachusetts, has a big regional administrator of EPA New
problem: not enough fresh water. Even though retail-level water conservation England. An EPA official since 1995,
measures are widely used, the town has had to turn away new industries and big Lubber was previously CEO of a firm
new residential developments for want of enough water for them. Accordingly, it specializing in investments in environ-
has expressed its willingness to buy 1.5 million gallons a day of water from a $40 mentally responsible companies, and
million desalinization plant that Bluestone Energy Service, Inc., of Braintree, a senior adviser to former Massachu-
proposes to build at Dighton on the banks of the nearby Taunton River, 14 miles setts Governor Michael Dukakis.
upstream from its mouth. Lubber also served as director and
board chair of the Massachusetts
High costs have long prevented wide use of plants that convert ocean Public Interest Research Group.
saltwater into fresh water. But, explains Bluestone vice president Jeffrey Hanson,
the numbers turn far more favorable when plants convert not seawater, but Janet L. Bowers, a registered
brackish tidewater such as that of the Taunton. Smaller synthetic membranes professional geologist, has been
required to get the salt out reduce their cost by a factor of almost 10. Pressure and elected president of the American
energy requirements also drop sharply. “It’s still not economic as a stand-alone Water Resources Association of
system,” he says. “But it can be a great supplemental supply. Anybody within a Middleburg, VA for the year 2000. The
reasonable distance of a coastline with a water shortage should look at this very association’s mission is to “advance
carefully. I truly believe that this is a good alternative.” multi-disciplinary water resources
management and research. President-
Ever since the plant on the Taunton was first proposed in 1993, environ- elect for 2001 is John H. Grounds, a
mentalists have expressed concern about the consequences of sucking large civil engineer.
amounts of water from the river and dumping a chemically altered liquid back in.
The free-flowing river and its tributaries form the state’s second largest watershed In 1989 Jo Ann Burkholder, profes-
and the habitat for many species of spawning fish and other forms of wildlife. sor of aquatic botany and marine
Bluestone has worked hard to demonstrate the environmental soundness of the sciences at North Carolina State
project, and in 1997 won preliminary approval from the first of several agencies University, led the team that discov-
that must sign off during the ongoing permitting process. The company had ered and described the toxic microbe
demonstrated its willingness to respond to criticisms with design changes. But Pfiesteria piscicida. Now Burkholder
apprehensions remain in place. and her colleagues have discovered
and described a second Pfiesteria
Jeffrey Brownell is a policy specialist at Save the Bay in Rhode Island, species, this one subtitled shumwayae
whose Narragansett Bay could be affected if the plant is built. Admitting that in recognition of the accomplishments
Bluestone has worked hard to improve its plan, Brownell still harbors reservations. of marine scientist Sandra Shumway
He thinks that Brockton should do a better job of recycling wastewater before of Southampton College on Long
turning to the desalinization option. He worries about the siting of the plant and its Island, NY. This new species was
powerful intake pipes’ effects on fish and on their larvae and eggs. He wonders detected after a 1995 hog lagoon spill
about the risks of building a plant whose capacity could reach 10 million gallons a into North Carolina’s New River
day if other communities in the region follow Brockton’s example and sign up. “To resulted in a fish kill. More recent
add yet another stress to the environment without exhausting other remedies is studies have confirmed its toxicity.
just not a good idea,” he says. Burkholder says that shumwayae’s
existence does not necessarily
In Massachusetts, the Dighton plant permitting process moves along, with increase the threats to fish or humans
continuing opportunities for public comment. Elsewhere, the desalinization idea from these sometimes toxic microbes.
continues to gain ground in many coastal areas beset by persistent droughts and She expects to discover a dozen such
fast-rising water consumption by more and more people. Hilton Head and Myrtle species. URL: www2.ncsu.edu
Beach in South Carolina, and Cape May, New Jersey are among locations with
plants in prospect. Tampa Bay, Florida has one under construction. Some experts Species & Habitats
think that Miami among other places will choose to follow suit.
Florida biologists are bracing for the
arrival in the Everglades of the Asian
State Aids Feds swamp eel, an omnivorous and
perpetually hungry species that was
first detected in Florida in 1990 and
Violations of commercial fishing regulations are frequent along the South
has been expanding its range ever
Carolina coast, reports the Charleston Post & Courier. Not unusual, the paper
since. A native of East Asia, this
reports, are cases where a small boat carrying three men wearing ski masks,
versatile creature can live almost
shrimping illegally, will slice off a full net and streak off at 90 mph if a regulator is
anywhere, do without water, and
spotted.
burrow into the mud to evade preda-
(Continued, p. 4)
tors. Damage it can do includes

Species & Habitats, Cont’d
disrupting existing food webs and
eating large quantities of native
species. People as far north as North
Carolina worry about warding off this
new nonindigenous species hazard.
Fishermen are the only sure-bet
predator, but the US taste for the
species is not yet well developed.
Alligators may help too but, says
Florida Caribbean Science Center
scientist Hannah Hamilton, “We
don’t know yet.”
Maine, alone among US states in still
being free of serious problems from
invasive aquatic plants, is concerned
about the arrival of two species of
milfoil, a very aggressive plant that
grows along lakesides and can move
out into waters as much as 20 feet
deep. The weed displaces native
plants and fish, chokes lakes, and
constitutes a major economic threat to
the tourism industry. Attempts are
being made to throw everything from
laws to pesticides at the weeds, so far
with no positive results as they march
toward Maine. Removing plant
fragments from boats and trailers,
after each use, would help. So, says
the Maine Lake Volunteer Monitor-
ing Program, can dumping weeds
away from the water and avoiding
vegetation while driving boats. URL:
www.janus.state.me.us.
Restorations
In its February 1998 issue, Atlantic
CoastWatch reported on how badly
Raccoon Key, in the lower Florida
Keys, had suffered from the preda-
tions of a resident troop of captive-
bred rhesus monkeys used for
scientific research. “They’re eating
the island,” biologist Curtis Kruer told
us. Now, thanks to efforts by Kruer
and others, the last of these monkeys
has been trapped and evicted as a
result of a Monroe County judge’s
court order. Denuded Raccoon Key
has become part of the Great White
Heron National Refuge. While
restoration planning continues, natural
regeneration of the island’s vegetation
is occurring rapidly—in part because
of the thick coat of fertilizer the
monkeys left behind.
4
State Aids Feds, Continued from p. 3
Until recently the National Marine Fisheries Service had but one officer
to patrol 14,000 square miles of federal waters along the South Carolina coast.
Now, in what is described as a benchmark agreement, marine law enforcers from
the state’s Department of Natural Resources have been granted the right to
help the lonely Fed by covering federal as well as state waters. In return, federal
funds have been provided for new patrol vessels and more staff.
US Senators and subcommittee staff members have expressed approval
of results to date, says the Post & Courier. Several other states are interested in
the concept.
Publications
The French and the Spanish explored Florida’s northward flowing St. Johns
River fifty years before the Mayflower landed. Though only 310 miles in length, the
river has since been visited by swarms of authors, naturalists, poets and others
drawn there by what environmental writer and filmmaker Bill Belleville calls its
“mysterious timelessness and unique beauty.” In researching his own book River
of Lakes: A Journey on Florida’s St. Johns River (University of Georgia Press,
2000), Belleville rode aboard everything from a kayak to an airplane—the slower
the better, he told FloridaTimes-Union book editor Ann Hyman, in order not to
“miss a lot of stuff” about this complex and historic blackwater system.
Early this year, on the 100th anniversary of the death of the world’s last
passenger pigeon, Jeremy P. Tarcher Putnam published Hope is the Thing With
Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds. Of six birds whose final
days author Christopher Cokinos surveys, five lived along the Atlantic coast: the
Carolina parakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker, Labrador duck, great auk—and the
passenger pigeon itself.
The Estuary’s Gift: An Atlantic Coast Cultural Biography (Penn State
University Press 1999) traces the course of human lives in several mid-Atlantic
estuaries from pre-colonial times down to the present. In telling his stories, author
David Griffith focuses on social and cultural problems stemming from environ-
mental degradation, especially in the Chesapeake and in North Carolina’s
Albemarle and Pamlico estuaries.
The Seacoast Reader (Lyons Press and The Nature Conservancy 1999)
is a book of enduring value for those concerned with coastal values and aesthetics.
Included among the anthology’s 23 authors are classic voices from the nineteenth
century including Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, and Charles Darwin as
well as such contemporary and powerful voices as those of Rachel Carson, Barry
Lopez, and William W. Warner. Atlantic coastal locations include Cape Cod,
where a section of Henry Beston’s classic work The Outermost House
chronicles a stargazing part of his celebrated winter on the beach, to Inagua island
in the Bahamas, where shipwrecked sailor Gilbert Klingel writes of a vivid diving
experience. “Both great summer reading and an excellent introduction for students
of coastal ecology,” said Library Journal.
An experimental new website being launched this spring, entitled
www.birdcast.org, will give citizens a twice-daily forecast of migratory bird
activities, and provide information about threats to migratory birds. Initially the site
will cover migrations in the Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia metropoli-
tan areas, and record birders’ observations. Sponsors are The Academy of
Natural Sciences, National Audubon Society, Clemson University Radar
Ornithology Lab, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Geomarine, and EPA.
 5
Restorations, Cont’d

In 1985, when President George

NAFTA to Spike NYC Bikeway? Bush memorably called Boston
Harbor the filthiest in America, much
When the National Park Service announced plans to build a paved of the blame fell on antique sewage
bicycle path through Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Queens, NY, the treatment facilities that, said the
Hudson River Audubon Society of Westchester and the Save Our Sanctuary Boston Globe, “turned the harbor into
Committee expressed concern. They argued that construction would destroy little more than an open sewer,
critical habitat for endangered and threatened species and “result in the taking of dumping tons of greasy black sludge
migratory birds (including nests).” Either the use of an existing bike path outside the on the outgoing tide every day.” Now,
refuge or the selection of an alternative route that they had proposed, said the the Globe finds, the modernization of
groups, would avoid the problem. two sewage treatment facilities is all
but complete and other signs of
More interesting than the issue is the novel way in which they registered dramatic recovery are plentiful. The
their opposition. They filed a complaint with the multinational Commission for cost to date is $3.9 billion vs. the
Environmental Cooperation (CEC)—a body composed of the environment originally forecast $6.1 billion. Sev-
ministers of Canada, Mexico, and the United States with a legal mandate to eral sources told the paper that the
oversee environmental agreements between these nations. success is a vivid example of how
much can be done with good manage-
Under the terms of the North American Agreement on Environmental ment and widespread citizen determi-
Cooperation (NAAEC), a side agreement to the NAFTA free trade agreement, the nation.
CEC can consider submissions from anyone that a party to the NAAEC is failing to
enforce an environmental law. Report Cards
In this instance the groups allege that the Park Service “is failing to enforce Among those recently issuing harsh
and proposing to violate” both the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered criticism of the US Army Corps of
Species Act. The CEC has the case under review. URL: www.cec.org Engineers are Taxpayers for
Common Sense and the National
Wildlife Federation. These groups’
Underwater Noise and Sea Animals new report, entitled Troubled Waters:
Congress, the Corps of Engineers, and
Wasteful Water Projects, calls for
On March 15 seventeen whales and dolphins became stranded on beaches
sharp reforms in how the Corps does
in the northern Bahamas. Nine died. Environmentalists were quick to link this
its business in order to achieve “more
highly unusual incident to sonar signals from US Navy anti-submarine exercises
fiscally and environmentally respon-
that were concurrently being conducted nearby.
sible management of the nation’s
water resources.” On the report’s
The Navy denied any connection. But scientists continue to find evidence
“Top 10 Most Wasteful Projects” list
of how manmade noise affects marine mammals, sea turtles and other forms of
are 5 along the Atlantic coast: Dela-
sea life relying principally on hearing rather than sight.
ware River Deepening, Oregon Inlet
Jetties, Savannah Harbor Expansion,
One study, recently completed after three years of work, was sponsored
New Jersey Beach Replenishment and
by the Australian Petroleum Production Exploration Association and
Long Island Beach Replenishment (see
conducted by the Centre for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin Univer-
Sayings, p. 2). URL: www.nwf.org
sity. Among the study’s findings:
The “continued mismanagement” of
v Humpback whales took “avoidance maneuvers” in reaction to seismic the nation’s fisheries, says the Marine
survey noise triggered as far as 12 kilometers away. Fish Conservation Network, a
coalition of 90 environmental groups,
v Sea turtles 2 kilometers away “displayed a general alarm response.” is costing taxpayers more than $160
million. The total represents relief
v Captive fish 2 to 5 kilometers away manifested alarm by swimming faster payments made in recent years to
or to the bottom, or by schooling in tighter circles. fishermen resulting from “the disas-
trous impacts of fishery management
v Squid “showed strong startle responses to “nearby air-gun start up” and failures on the East and West coasts.”
evidence that they would “significantly alter their behavior” at an esti The report says that the 1994 collapse
mated 2-5 kilometers from an “approaching large seismic source.” of new England’s groundfish fishery
led to $50 million of the total cost.
The full study will be posted on the Internet in May. Proposed South Atlantic legislation
would cost an additional $25 million.
URL: www.cmc-ocean.org URL: www.conservefish.org

Products
Undergoing testing at the Norfolk
Naval Station, reports Environmen-
tal News Service, is Xenon Envi-
ronmental Systems of Canada’s
Aerated Non-Oily Wastewater
Membrane Treatment System (AMTS)
to handle and discharge wastewater
from showers, laundries, galleys, and
heads. If it works, the system could
eliminate the need for dockside
pumpout facilities or the temptation to
discharge liquid waste illegally at sea.
The system features a bioreactor,
hollow fiber ultrafiltration membranes,
and ultraviolet disinfection. A market
for it could be found in the cruise ship
industry.
Funding
Matching grants for wetlands restora-
tion, in amounts of up to $1 million, are
available to conservation partnerships
and other individuals and organiza-
tions through the North American
Wetlands Conservation Act. The next
deadline is July 28. URL:
www.fws.gov/r9awwo/nawcahp/hmtl.
Job Openings
The Water Keeper Alliance in White
Plains, NY, umbrella group for 41 non-
governmental Keeper programs,
seeks a development director. URL:
www.keeper.org
American Rivers in Washington, DC
needs a Development Assistant and a
Membership Development Associate.
E-Mail wsisson@amrivers.org
The Scientific Committee on
Oceanic Research at Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, is looking for a
new executive director. URL:
www.jhu.edu/~scor/
The Graduate School of Oceanog-
raphy at the University of Rhode
Island’s Narragansett Bay campus
seeks a new dean. URL: www.uri.edu
A position as assistant dean for
extension—aquatic, coastal, &
aquaculture programs and assistant
director for Florida Sea Grant is
open at the Northwest Fisheries
Science Center, University of
Florida. URL: www.flseagrant.org
6
Concerns Rise Over Sea Level Rise
Among US coastal areas most vulnerable to sea-level rise, according to a
new report from the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, are the southeast
US, the mid-Atlantic (especially the Chesapeake Bay region), and southern New
England. Echoing previous forecasts, the report predicts an overall rise of 20 inches
during the coming century, or double the rise over the past 100 years.
Local communities, especially those likely to be the hardest hit, have begun
to take the threat to heart. Coastal communities in New Jersey and North Carolina
expressed particular interest in the Pew study. Researchers in New York City have
begun serious investigations of adaptive strategies. In the Boston area, the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University, the
Department of Geography at Boston University (BU), and the Metropolitan
Area Planning Commission are spearheading a pioneering three year, $900,000
study to examine how the combination of climate change and sea level rise will
affect water, sewer, highway, and other infrastructures in all communities located
within the Interstate 495 beltway. The EPA-funded study, now being launched, is
designed to produce broad new strategies about how communities in the 1,225-
square-mile study area can best cope with new health and safety risks from the
warmer and windier weather that is predicted as well as from the increased threats
of flooding and rising groundwater.
Distinctive characteristics of the study include its broadly cross-disciplinary
nature, its long time frames, and its emphasis on adaptation rather than mitigation,
according to co-directors Paul Kirshen at Tufts and Matthias Ruth at BU. Its
findings, said the Boston Globe, “may serve as a national model for the potential
effects of climate change on coastal cities.”
Low-lying Monroe County in south Florida, within which the Keys are
located, faces immediate threats. Already, warmer water in the Keys has hastened
the rate of coral bleaching and mortality at the Florida National Marine Sanctuary.
Few areas anywhere are more directly exposed to the hazards of sea level rise.
Accordingly, at the suggestion of Ezra Millstein of the World Wildlife Fund, the
county has begun to cooperate with the Alliance of Small Island Nations. The county
will also break new ground by sending its own delegate to the upcoming United
Nations Climate Summit to take place in The Hague, Netherlands. URLs:
www.pewclimate.org; www.tufts.edu/tie/climb; www.epa.gov/globalwarming/
impacts/stateimp/index.html
Saharan Dust Damages Caribbean Coral
Standard explanations for the demise of coral reefs vary between global
warming, high sea-surface temperatures, pollution, the trade of corals, and nutrient
overloading from nearby land based sources. While the roles may differ according
to location, the explanation continues, it is always some combination. Now a new
culprit has been identified as worthy of further study.
Four years ago, USGS scientist Gene Shinn, who has been examining
coral reefs for over 40 years, came across the dust deposition record from a
Barbados meteorological station going back to 1965. Noting that high deposition
years matched region-wide coral death and bleaching episodes perfectly, he soon
realized that no one had studied the biological content of Saharan dust blown
across the ocean. Or its effects. Since then Shinn and others have found that close
to 1 billion tons of dust blow across annually on the prevailing winds. The dust
deposits both iron and phosphates, which can catalyze coral-killing algal blooms,
and a great variety of bacteria, viruses and fungi, including spores of many species
of the soil fungus aspergillis. (Continued, p. 7)
 7
Job Openings, Cont’d

The Nature Conservancy’s Dela-

Greener Caribbean, Continued from p. 1 ware Chapter seeks a coordinator for
its capital campaign. E-mail
Several examples indicate an emerging new mood: clargey@tnc.org

In Jamaica’s Negril resort area, five hotels have become active partners in The Ferry Beach Ecology School in
a new regional conservation and environmental management effort. Activities Maine needs naturalists to conduct
include patrolling the Negril Marine Park, environmental education, and three summer classes for students in grades
planting. The project is supported by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute 3 through 8. URL: www.fbes.org/
(CANARI) in partnership with the Inter-American Foundation in Washington. jobdescrip.html
These organizations have also been working together to support community-based
natural resource management initiatives on other islands. Postdoctoral positions are available at
the Department of Marine Sci-
ences, University of Connecticut,
Threats to Tobago’s reefs come from untreated sewage from onshore and and the Institute of Marine Sci-
from visiting yachts, haphazard development, and the careless behavior of divers ences, University of North Caro-
and Jet-ski operators within the island’s marine parks. Now, at the request of reef lina-Chapel Hill in Morehead City.
boat and scuba diving operators, environmentalists, scientists, and community URL: www.also.org/jobs2000
leaders, the government is organizing a corps of volunteer marine wardens.
Environment Tobago calls public participation “a valid and extremely effective
Upcoming Events
method to supplement and enhance government efforts for conservation.”

Already the Year 2000 burst of tall-

Along with fast-growing tourism development on St. Lucia’s northwest
ships activity has begun. Groups of
coast has come increasing congestion and pollution. For the past two years, the large sailboats are preparing to race
government has been collecting data about environmental consequences of social from Genoa, Italy and Southampton,
and economic activity. Now, with help from the Canadian International Develop- England to a rendezvous at Cadiz,
ment Agency, the government has launched the second “awareness raising” Spain. In May the Tall Ships 2000
phase of its Northwest Coast Conservation Project. The purpose of the campaign, fleet, comprising some 150 vessels
says the St. Lucia Star, is “to inform various groups including hoteliers, developers, ranging from 100 to nearly 400 feet in
farmers, and residents of the impacts of negative practices on the rivers and length, will race to Bermuda, remain-
beaches and the subsequent effects on public health.” ing there from June 9-12. Next official
port for the Tall Ships 2000 fleet is
On New Providence Island in the Bahamas, a dispute has exploded over Boston (July 11-16). From there they
the proposed Clifton Cay development near the island’s western tip. Developers depart for Halifax (July 19-14) to
would withdraw from public use nearly 2 miles of the coast, and build 600 luxury participate in what is being billed as
homes, a golf course and beach club on land that has deep historic and cultural Canada’s biggest single millennium
significance. It is the site of former Lucayan Indian settlements and an 18th century celebration with 700,000 expected
plantation containing the ruins of slave quarters and a burial ground. Adjacent reef visitors. They then race back across
systems and associated marine life would be threatened by marina and channel the Atlantic for a final Tall Ships 2000
construction. Local communities have mounted a vigorous protest. Several rendezvous in Amsterdam, The
international organizations—the World Monuments Fund, Natural Resources Netherlands. URLs:
Defense Council, and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation—have joined www.tallships2000
in. Pressure from attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. helped persuade one investor to www.sailboston.com.
back off. But the principal developer, Chaffin/Light Associates, recently vowed to
carry on. This company’s Spring Island resort in South Carolina is often touted as an The Opsail 2000 flotilla will concur-
example of enlightened and sensitive environmental management. So even if the rently follow a separate schedule of
project goes forward, a reasonably high level of environmental concern can be port visits including San Juan (May
expected. URL: www.irf.org; www.nrdc.org. 25-29), Miami (June 7-10), Norfolk
(June 16-20), Baltimore/Philadelphia
(June 23-27), New London (July 12-
Saharan Dust, Continued from p. 6 15) and Portland (July 28-31) New
York is the official Opsail 2000 port
from July 3-9. Highlight will be the
Aspergillis that grew from the spores have killed off approximately 90% of invitation-only Parade of Sail up the
the Caribbean’s sea fans since 1983. Shinn notes that the scale of dust falls have Hudson, an Opsail tradition since the
increased steadily since the mid-1970’s coinciding with well-documented drought organization’s initial event in 1964,
and desertification processes in west African regions. Shinn speculates there may which is limited to international naval
be other effects as well, most notably to human health, with increases in asthma vessels, training ships and others with
and allergy rates on Puerto Rico and other islands coinciding with that of African special historic significance.
dust deposition, and with high rates of iron deposition in the Gulf Stream perhaps URL: www.opsail2000.org.
contributing to Florida’s red tides last year. URL: coastal.er.usgs.gov/african_dust (Continued p. 8)
 Atlantic CoastWatch
Sustainable Development Institute
3121 South St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
Tel: (202) 338-1017
E-mail: susdev@igc.org
URL: www.susdev.org
Upcoming Events, Continued from p. 7
1-3 May. The Sixth International Conference on Remote Sensing
for Marine and Coastal Environments will convene at the
Charleston Convention Center, SC. URL: www.erim-int.com/
CONF/marine/MARINE.html
9-11 May. Enviroexpo 2000 brings together the latest products
and services in Boston’s World Trade Center. URL:
www.enviroexpo.com
11-14 May. Yale University hosts the Good in Nature and
Humanity Conference to examine ethical, spiritual and scientific
perspectives. URL: www.yale.edu/natureandhumanity
14-19 May. IV International Science and Management of
Protected Areas Association (SAMPAA) Conference, will be held
in Ontario, Canada. URL: landscape.acadiau.ca/sampaa/
24 May. Conservation Easements: The Legal Basis and Financial
Benefits of Voluntary Land Protection, in Asheville, NC. URL:
www2.ncsu.edu/ncsu/CIL/WRRI/conease.html
24-26 May. The Aftermath of Hurricane Floyd: Recovery in the
Coastal Plain - Social, Physical, and Economic Impacts on Groups
and Individuals, at Eastern Carolina University. URL:
www.ecu.edu/coas/floyd/
Non Profit Org.
US Postage
Paid
Permit #1400
Silver Spring, MD
7-9 June. Annual Statewide Pollution Prevention
Conference in Clearwater Beach, FL: www.dep.state.fl.us
8-11 June. Community Action School, 4 th Annual
Training, developed by University of Maryland’s
Academy of Leadership. URL:
www.academy.umd.edu/training/cas
18-23 June. 24th Annual Conference: Flood Plain
Management in a New Millenium, in Austin, TX. Orga-
nized by the Association of State Floodplain Manag-
ers. URL: www.floods.org
22-25 June. Atlantic Coast Contaminants Workshop:
Endocrine Disruptors in the Marine Environment:
Impacts on Marine Wildlife and Human Health, Bar
Harbor, ME. URL: www.meriresearch.org/workshop.html
6-7 July. Economics of Marine Protected Areas, orga-
nized by University of British Columbia fisheries
centre. URL: fisheries.com.
July 9-12. The Coastal Society’s 17th International
Conference: Coasts at the Millenium, Portland, OR.
URL: www.oce.orst.edu/mrm/tcs17/confhome.html