Another dam coming out of a New England river is reason to cheer. However, this one shown in the picture at right, was pulled from the Black Brook, in New Hampshire, a tributary of the Merrimack River. The folks that pulled the dam say the project will restore all manner of fish habitat. But what about Merrimack River dams downstream in Lowell and Lawrence still blocking access for anadromous fish migrating from the Atlantic to the Black Brook to spawn? The Lawrence dam in particular has been an enormous stumbling block in the Merrimack to restoring fish runs to upstream spawning grounds like the Black Brook. Here are the latest numbers of anadromous fish making it past the Lawrence dam to spawning grounds upstream.
Fortunately, there is also some good news regarding the Lawrence dam. This picture is of work crews putting in a crest gate at the Lawrence dam which is hoped to better regulate the water flow over the dam when the river is running high. The problem with fish migrating past the Lawrence dam is that during high water herring, shad, alewife and salmon heading upstream get confused by water that's spilling all over the place. Normally, the only water passing the dam washes through the turbine spillways of a hydro-electric plant at the dam's south end. A fish-lift strategically placed in the wake of the spillways, attracts migrating fish and lifts them to the top of the dam. When the river is up, however, water is spilling over the dam as well as washing past the fish lift. The counter currents confuse the fish and they don't make it to the lift, which is why the migration counts have been so pathetic.
The new crest gate, being installed here, is expected to more effectively regulate water flow over the dam so the fish trying to get upstream will get less confused. It will also make for more efficient generation at the power plant, so every body makes out. Here's a great story on the Lawrence crest gate installation. There will still be the Lowell dam impeding the Merrimack migrations, although it too has a fish lift. Unfortunately, there is no good news we could find about the future of that dam.
11.09.09
This release says a major Virginia car dealer has partnered with an electric car maker and some high school kids to help spark interest in getting electric car sales rolling in the Lovers' State. The high school kids are supposed to be working on some kind of solar powered Ecar charging station. Even if it only works out as well as your average high school science project, it still sends a great message to the kids involved. And if this collaboration really produces results? We have a new generation of energy-wise entrepreneurs coming through the ranks.
11.06.09
The US Department of interior held a seminar of sorts this week on all the great ways we can improve our national environmental resources and our economy at the same time. This is absolutely the direction this country should take. Saving the environment and promoting energy efficiency are no longer just political movements. They are booming, global economic opportunities which this country, with its amazing academic resources, is better positioned than any other to explore and exploit. And with the crush of ecological problems across the world, environmental and energy- efficiency industry offers a way the US can maintain its leadership position in the world. We don't have China's labor or Middle East Oil. We do have R&D that those countries are going to be screaming for as they pollute themselves into oblivion. We've come a long way since the days of Reagan and James Watt. It's good news.
10.21.09
A large corporation that achieves a 95 percent recycling rate is definitely good news. Siemon, a worldwide leader in IT network infrastructure says its Watertown, CT headquarters is a zero-landfill facility. That means 900 tons of trash is being reclaimed every year by this headquarters alone. However, they do incinerate what they can't recycle and the release doesn't provide figures on how much trash gets burned. Ah well, you can't have everything. We were just about to sing Siemon's praises but the incineration thing sort of put a damper on that. Still, 900 tons is a lot of recycling. It illustrates the conservation lifestyle is gaining traction and the wanton ways of even a year ago seem almost an anachronism already. It's good news. We'll give it a greenthumb up. Let's just hope they aren't incinerating just as much as they recycle. That makes the whole thing's a joke, on us. A dirty joke.
10.7.09
Here's a wonderful article about progress going in a direction our founding fathers may not have envisioned. For the first time since colonial days New Hampshire's Winnicut River doesn't have a dam. Dam removal is a big deal when it comes to restoring our rivers and the fish runs through them. Now, it's hoped that the Winnicut salmon and herring runs will return and the Great Bay and the Gulf of Maine will benefit in the process. Pictured here is the Winnicut as it meanders into the Great Bay ecosystem. (It's real hard to see. Work your way back from the base of the bay at upper center-left of the photo.) It's called an eco-system because there are all kinds of plants and animals that live and work together here in a way completely different from an ocean or fresh water environment. Spartina grass provide homes for small crabs, eel grass does the same for grass shrimp and seahorses. Oysters reefs are once again starting to re-establish themselves in the Great Bay thanks to the great work being done by Ray Grizzle at UNH. It's hard to estimate the importance to all these critters of taking these dams out of these rivers, because the dams have been there so long. We don't know what the place looked like before the dams or what it will look like after.
There are over 7,000 dams in New England's rivers and streams. That's a hard number to get your mind around, but it's reasonable to assume that taking them out might have an important, if not profound impact on the biodiversity of marine ecosystems like the Great Bay. You can't see the river in this shot, but it stretches right down to the low left corner of the image. (Thanks Google Earth) What you can see is the entire Great Bay estuary, and it's earned its name.
Along with the same eco-system theme, this release is a bit of an eye-opener. It's all about the success of preservation efforts in Africa's Congo Basin. Apparently, 126 million acres have been preserved and 125,000 lowland gorillas were discovered living in there. That second figure sounds suspect. That's a whole city of gorillas. Still, rainforests are to terrestrial ecosystems what estuaries are to marine ecosystems: biodiversity builders. The idea that human efforts can correct the damage done on land and in the sea, starts one to thinking that maybe we can have, and enjoy, these robust ecological resources at our discretion. We don't have to ruin the world around us to enjoy it.
10.2.09
Looks like we saved the whales. Humpbacks, at least. The government
now wants to take the humpback off the endangered species list
because they have recovered
so well since the international ban on hunting
them in 1966. With all the junk we're dumping into our oceans you'd
think that such a rebound wouldn't happen for an animal that lives in
the ocean. Either, we're not polluting the oceans as badly as NBN
keeps claiming we're doing, or whales are a little more robust than
we give them credit for. Either way, it's proof positive
environmental programs do work and environments can bounce back.
We're not doomed. Does that mean we can lift the ban on hunting
whales? Guess that depends on how good whales are to eat. That's a
whole new kettle of fish.
9.30.09
Here's something that might qualify as good news. New Hampshire's drinking water test results are now going to be posted on the internet. Nice precedent to set. Every community should follow suit. Be nice to know what's coming out of your faucet and passing through your kidneys and liver. Since we've been attacking coal burning power plants today might as well throw in this release about drinking water impacts from coal ash. Cool picture, if nothing else.
9.14.09
Looking at this video it's heart warming to see people so concerned about the welfare of homeless cats. Then again, is it? Homeless cats, also called feral cats, are thought to kill millions of song birds and small wild animals a year. This is a good article on just how bad the problem is. Warning! Personal anecdote approaching. Friends of mine in Pennsylvania say they have an horrendous feral cat problem. The screaming and fighting of cats imade the surrounding woods sound more like an animal shelter. The problem just seemed to get worse and worse. Then they found the problem wasn't the cats, it was their neighbor, putting about 40 pounds of food a day for them. Back to the story. Where did all these wild cats come from? People are definitely part of the problem. Cats, for all their indifference toward everything other than their own needs, still are very endearing animals. These folks in the video above at least are trying to fix the problem—by “fixing” a lot of cats. Then there are these folks in Wisconsin proposing a slightly different control method that may appeal to my Pennsylvanian friends and other less sympathetic to nation's homeless cat problem. Whether you feelings run toward the sympathetic or the psychotic when it comes to homeless cats, it's useful to know they aren't so helpless. Read this article. It it's an eye opener. Cat people aren't necessarily cat lovers.
9.11.10
In these tight times, it's nice to still see some spending going to more fringe environmental efforts. Here's an article about $167,000 going to such projects in the Bay State. By the president's profligate spending practices, that's chump change. But look at all the great things it's going to. When it comes to making environmental improvements, a little money goes a long way. Like the article says: “These are not huge amounts of money but they can be used to leverage more funds, either through appropriation at town meetings or with in-kind services." There are wonderful people in obscure organizations that can turn this chump change into cleaner water and more abundant clams and fish.
Then again, the sewer plant upgrades being proposed around the country using hundreds of millions in Stimulus money, is really going to move mountains. We hate to beat the environmental drum so hard around here, but these projects sound like the highest and best use of Stimulus money. The article above is worth a read just to see how many different ways folks are trying to improve marine environments. This sort of stuff is going to have a collective impact. Not in a year, not in two. But, in our lifetimes. Here's a wetlands preservation project in Florida. These don't look like paid engineers. These efforts so often run on shoestring budgets with volunteer help, making them the biggest bang for the buck by far for government spending.
8.26.09
Scallop stocks are up, two independent surveys say. Given the great news about oysters these days, this is great news all around. Shell fish are not swimming fish, but it does suggest that marine resources like scallops and hopefully fishing, when properly regulated, can produce reliable harvests every year. At left is a scallop fisherman apparently as happy about the scallop news as we are. However, if these were Peconic Bay scallops he might then have a reason to be truly happy. Ocean scallops are hamburger compared to bay scallops which are the filet mignon on seafood.
8.17.09
Here's another cell phone recycling deal with a twist. They are taking only iPhones and offering some pretty good bucks for trade-ins. That touch-sensitive screen must be worth more than the mini-tv on all the other phones. Kinda like air bags in cars. Lot of gold in that non-corrosive circuity. Now, if we can just figure out a way to gold-plate plastic water bottles maybe we wouldn't throw those out either.
8.10.09
This isn't good news, it's great news, if it can be proven. An international team of scientists is finding all the regulations infuriating sportsmen and commercial fishermen across the country are starting to pay off. Certainly the stripped bass fishery has rebounded on the East Coast, but there are few fluke out there to speak of. This, after years of ever-tightening restrictions. Charter boat captains are screaming bloody murder. I went fluke fishing four times this year and didn't get one keeper. Now NOAA has come out with the study saying all their fluke regs, among all the others, are working. NOAA. Now there is an agency with a PR problem with commercial fishermen. Fishermen hate the NOAA and all its regs. If the NOAA wants to improve those relations—and they should—show us the fish, not the studies.
8.05.09
Gloucester Fish Count
Kudos to the New England Aquarium for organizing this event. Divers from across eastern New England jumped into the waters off Cape Ann and identified 45 different kinds of fish. An organizer of the event says it's evidence of how the environment down there is improving. Left out of the story was the discovery, two years back during the very same event, of a smothering form of sealife called sea-squirts. These squirts really put the fear into some folks around the area. They are jello-like creature brought here form distant shores. A varient of seasquirts are also turning up on Long island. This is not another attempt to present bad news whenever there's good news.Clearly, it's great to hear that so many people participated and showed an interest. A handful of Sea Squirts. They are as gross live as they look in the picture.
But that's another thing missing from the story: more people invovled means more fish spotted. We don't want to be contrarian here, we just want to be vigilent. So much damage has been done to these delicate ecocsystems, to think they will rebound after 20 years of environmental sensitivity is a little unrealisitic. Like our economy, it's going to get worse before it gets better. Read "The World Without Us" to get a great perspective on the kind of environmental rebound this earth can expect while we're still here and trying to clean the place up. About Cape Ann. In northeast Massachusetts, it's one of the East Coast's undiscovered treasures. It's a mini-Cape Cod jutting into the Atlantic about 20 miles north of Boston. Cool, clean ocean waters wash over this hook of granite making for some of the greatest diving around. Check out Halibut Point of Folly Cove.
July, 30, 2009
Never let it be said that NBN is all gloom and doom. Here's a silver lining in the cloud of road runoff pollution. In 2008 there were ten percent fewer beach closings than in 2007. Before we break out the volley ball nets, in 2009, at least on the East Coast, we're suffering one of the wettest summers on record. We're seen beach closing after beach closing. Look at the July, 24, 2009 ENews entry on Indian clammers to learn why.
July 24, 2009, Stories like this represent why you have to be hopeful for the future. This company is a little more than Ivy league when it comes to being green. They've opted to install a living wall, sort of a hanging garden-cum-wallpaper that is a going to grace the side of its Pittsburgh office tower. How they water this thing is a mystery, what they pay for it can only be commendable. They list the advantages in the release so please, take a moment and read it. What they don't mention is how this sort of application, instead of glass and mirror, can save the lives of millions of birds. That's a bit of a reach, but it still applies.
This is a conumdrum. Intuitively, messing with the natural order of things sounds like it can only make things worse for the environment. So dredging should be a bad thing. Especially a water body as environmentally sensitive as the mouth of the Merrimack River in Massachusetts. Dredging creeks on Long Island has been blamed for wiping out winter flounder populations. Yet, in Mass, they are taking the sand and backfilling erosion damages on Plum Island and Salisbury Beach, both about a mile away. It may not be wise to fool with Mother Nature, and trying to stop erosion damage is like a fistful of sand. Here, however, you improve boating access, and replenish the beaches where houses are falling into the waters. Sounds like a plan. Here's the mouth of the Merrimack as seen from about 2 miles up. (Thanks Google Earth) Salisbury is on top, Plum Island below.
You have to look hard, but you can see the irregular beach erosion patterns on the lower half of the ocean beach shone in the satellite image. That's resulting from the jetties and the dredging is probably aggravating that erosion problem. The one sudden indentation is where the dredge spoils are being placed. Houses are falling into the sea there.
June 17, 2009
Yesterday's prime-time revelation about the accelerated pace of global warming and the near-term, catastrophic consequences merits a re-examination of the Rolling Stone piece of doom-and-gloom theorist James Lovelock. This guy's science street cred is not in doubt. What may be a little tough to swallow are his forcasts. It kind of reminds you of the fellows outside Penn Station in NY, with the sandwich boards forecasting the end of the world. This fellow might have chosen a more subtle delivery to his message, more folks might have listened. Still, it's spooky how many such studies predicting an accelerated rate of global warming are surfacing these days. Catch this video if you want additional information and try to look past the sound track and theatrical footage to what the folks are actually saying. The red in the image at left is the amount of ice that's melted from Greenland in the past few decades.
June 2, 2009
This story is fairly bizarre if true. Cavemen practicing sustainable fishing? No doubt they didn't have factory fishing ships or mortgages to pay. They just took what they needed. Bet they didn't throw out a lot of what they caught either. My wife and I were at Lenny and Joes in Connecticut this weekend. They were shoveling out platefuls of fried food at a mind-numbing rate. Mountains of the stuff, and I have to say it was delicious. But how much of that stuff ended in the trash? A third?
How Now Brown Trout?
When a story I was doing recently for the Connecticut section of the New York Times fell through I found myself owner of a fascinating tale involving brown trout, evolution and a 900-year-old stream in central Massachusetts.It turns out that a small waterfall in this stream presented resident browntrout with the evolutionary alternative no species wants to face: evolve or goextinct. The trout upstream of the waterfall apparently opted for the former rather than try their chances with the seven-foot tumult downstream. Over the course of 900 years these trout evolved to reproduce at a smaller size then their brethren at the base of the waterfall. This represents an alteration in their geneticmake-up. Their very DNA changed to allow this important adaption necessary to survive in the smaller stream.
Scientists are theorizing that nice big trout like these...
Over just a few hundred years...
Can evolve into smaller animals...
All in the course of 900 years, a blink of an eye when viewed through a Darwinianlens.Who cares? Anyone concerned about global warming should. With plantsandanimals across the planet soon to be facing the same sink-or-swimchoices now pushing polar bears into the drink, there could soon be a premium on being able to adapt quickly to a fast-changing planet. The work being done on these precocious browntroutstarts to look at how quickly animals can evolve in the face ofenvironmental pressure. This is where it gets tricky. If random mutation is thedriver behindevolution, as Darwinsays, than it raises the question: can environmental factors speed up a random process. Or are other factors influencing the rate of geneticadaptation to environmental conditions. Unfortunately, the Times’ Science section didn’t wantthe story either, so I’m sharing it here now.
Using trees to fight forest fires may sound like weird science but
that's precisely what the US Forest Service, MIT and a
Canton, MA,
electronics firm will be investigating this spring in what could well become the
nation's first country-wide network of outdoor fire alarms. The science is solid
as are the mechanics. Trees create a tiny electric current that's used to
maintain the ideal pH in the roots and trunk in varying soil acidity conditions.
The more acidic or basic the surrounding earth, the more electricity the tree
creates. A team of MIT scientists in a paper published last month found it was a
renewable source of power and that tapping it was harmless to the host tree.
These findings have cleared the way
for the Canton firm Voltree to start
field testing an environmental sensor the firm designed that literally plugs
into the tree. Daily soil moisture, temperature and air humidity measurements
will be taken by this device and transmitted via radio signal to Forest Service
monitoring stations scattered throughout the country. That sensor will include
an emergency signal that's emitted whenever surrounding air
temperatures indicate fire has broken out. This device is going to be tested
this spring at a Forest Service field science center in
Idaho. There are other potential
uses for this power including motion and/or radioactivity detectors fixed along
the nation’s borders. The MIT folks think that might be reaching, Voltree isn’t so sure. Still,
the study findings clear the way for serious research and development to begin,
with potentially far reaching results.
Asphalt may not be the most fascinating subject to read up on, but it will do on a rainy day. In this case the story is about porous pavement, an application being embraced in some parts of the world, including southeastern New Hampshire. This area of the world, like many others, is plagued by contaminants in the water that collect and run off into creeks, ponds, wetlands and rivers after rain storms. The stuff is laced with salt, bacteria, fertilizers and other lawn chemicals. Porous pavement, according to its advocates, helps filter those contaminant out.
Porous pavement doing what it does best, letting water pass right through. The secret is larger stones mixed in with the liquid asphalt or tar. Much smaller stones or even sand is the normal ingredient and that makes pavement non-porous.
In a story set to run soon in the Boston Globe, an Exeterdental office talks about porous pavement, a special mix of asphalt with holesit in. Outside of the shameless exploitation of alliteration and bad jokesabout cavities, the story touches on a sore subject regarding looming federalmandates for cleaning contaminants out of community road runoff sources. It doesn't take much imagination to think what the rainwater rushing off a mallparking lot must do to the delicate creatures that have to suck it in as theymake their way through life in New England Swamps and wetlands. Look for it in the next few weeks. Search words: “Porous Pavement”.
An unwelcome visitor off Cape Ann
Invasive sea squirt species a threat to ocean bottom, fishing By Tim Wacker
By most accounts, Old Garden Beach in Rockport is a scenic dive site, but on a recent descent, Michael Donovan of Amesbury saw something as ugly as it may be dangerous making its first reported appearance here.
Didemnum sp. , a member of the sea squirt family, is a tiny animal that grows in bunches, creating gelatinous sheets. In recent years, this foreign species has begun taking over whole swaths of East Coast ocean bottom, including the sensitive fishing grounds at Georges Bank. Last fall, about 88 square miles there were colonized with patches of the gooey stuff.
When Donovan saw sheets the size of welcome mats growing on rocks off Old Garden Beach, he knew he'd stumbled across a sign the invasive creature had made its way to the shores of Cape Ann.
``We had taken a course on invasive species a couple months ago, so we were pretty sure we knew what we were looking at," said Donovan, a recreational diver who has gotten involved in a sea grant program to monitor invasives. ``In the matted patches where the didemnum was growing, everything else just seemed to stop growing. We were pretty alarmed."
They should be, according scientists familiar with theorganisms.
``I'm a scientist and I don't tend to be alarmist, but there's a serious problem here," said Judith Pederson, a coastal resources specialist with Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sea Grant education and outreach program. ``Unfortunately, we really don't have good scientific data on the impact of this organism on other species. But the way this thing seems to be growing suggests it does have an impact on surrounding species."
Sea squirts are so named because they squirt water if lifted out of the ocean. They filter microscopic particles of food out of the water, much like clams.
More familiar sea squirt species commonly grow on docks and pilings. Others cluster around boat ropes and docking lines left for long periods in the water.
They reproduce sexually and asexually, so even a tiny fragment can form an entirely new colony elsewhere, essentially creating clones of itself. That kind of adaptability, which allows it to colonize large patches of ocean bottom, could be bad news for the rich lobster grounds off Cape Ann. Scientists are concerned this species of sea squirt will smother plants and animals that sustain the underwater food chain.
``It does tend to take up a lot of surface area that a lot of other things tend to grow on," Pederson said. ``My own personal observation is this is an extremely aggressive sea squirt."
Identifying different species of sea squirts is not like identifying different species of fish, according to Pederson and other experts. There are many sea squirt species that can be similar in shape, structure, and life cycle -- some more dangerous than others.Some are wiping out mussel beds in Nova Scotia, while others are threatening oyster beds in Australia and New Zealand.
The sea squirts that previously have been discovered in Georges Bank, Isle of Shoals in New Hampshire, and Cobscook Bay in New Hampshire are called didemnum sp. -- a generic scientific label in Latin that means that scientists know they are a member of the sea squirt family, but are uncertain of exactly which species, or even if they belong to the same species.
A researcher coming out with a paper this fall says the squirts found on Cape Ann shores are the same as the sea squirts carpeting Georges Bank.
``I feel quite confident in telling you it's the same species," said Mary Carman , a research associate at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. ``I can tell you that this didemnum is slowly filling in various niches, that it was not previously present in here . . . and there are no known predators."
Only tiny snails, called periwinkles, are known to eat the sea squirt, which is very acidic. Even then, the periwinkle will only eat sea squirts that are dying or weakened, leaving the healthy squirts untouched, Carman said.
Pederson and Carman say it's too early to know what danger these sea squirts pose to the surrounding environs and the livelihoods of those who make a living off the sea . Arthur Sawyer, vice president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association, said he's heard of the sea squirts, but doesn't believe they are affecting the industry right now.
``What's going to happen five years from now? Nobody knows," Carman said. ``But I can tell you that since the 1980s, there has been dramatic change."
Another concern is where the didemnum sp. has been turning up, Pederson said. Most species of sea squirts are more commonly found in manmade inshore areas such as docks and marinas, or shellfish farming operations. Finding them now in natural stretches of the open ocean is unusual, she said.
``Once these things get into the marine environment, it is almost impossible to get rid of them," Pederson said. ``Trying to remove this organism from Cape Ann will be almost impossible."
If nothing else, the sea squirts have changed the view in one dive spot of Old Garden Beach. Donovan said the gelatinous blobs are an unpleasant shade of yellow that cover a third or more of the rocks they were found on.
``It seems like it has the potential to take over some of our favorite dive spots," he said. ``Who knows what will happen to the fisheries."
Another dam 
Fortunately, there is also some good news regarding the Lawrence dam. This picture is of work crews putting in a 
The new crest gate, being installed here, is expected to more effectively regulate water flow over the dam so the fish trying to get upstream will get less confused. It will also make for more efficient generation at the power plant, so every body makes out. Here's a great 
This 
The US Department of interior held a 
A large corporation that achieves a 
Here's a 
There are over 7,000 dams in New England's rivers and streams. That's a hard number to get your mind around, but it's reasonable to assume that taking them out might have an important, if not profound impact on the biodiversity of marine ecosystems like the Great Bay. You can't see the river in this shot, but it stretches right down to the low left corner of the image. (Thanks Google Earth) What you can see is the entire Great Bay estuary, and it's earned its name.
Along with the same eco-system theme, 
Looks like we saved the whales. Humpbacks, at least. The government
now wants to take the humpback off the endangered species list
because they have 
Here's something that might qualify as 
Looking at 
Then again, the sewer plant upgrades being proposed around the country using hundreds of millions in Stimulus money, is really going to move mountains. We hate to beat the environmental drum so hard around here, but these projects sound like the highest and best use of Stimulus money. The article above is worth a read just to see how many different ways folks are trying to improve marine environments. This sort of stuff is going to have a collective impact. Not in a year, not in two. But, in our lifetimes. Here's a wetlands preservation project in Florida. These don't look like paid engineers. These efforts so often run on shoestring budgets with volunteer help, making them the biggest bang for the buck by far for government spending. 
Scallop stocks are up, two independent surveys say. Given the 
Here's another cell phone 
Kudos to the New England Aquarium for organizing this 
Never let it be said that NBN is all gloom and doom. Here's a silver lining in the cloud of road runoff pollution. In 2008 there were ten percent fewer beach closings than in 2007. Before we break out the volley ball nets, in 2009, at least on the East Coast, we're suffering one of the wettest summers on record. We're seen beach closing after beach closing. Look at the July, 24, 2009 
July 24, 2009, Stories like 
This is a 
You have to look hard, but you can see the irregular beach erosion patterns on the lower half of the ocean beach shone in the satellite image. That's resulting from the jetties and the dredging is probably aggravating that erosion problem. The one sudden indentation is where the dredge spoils are being placed. Houses are falling into the sea there.
Yesterday's prime-time 
Scientists are theorizing that nice big trout like these...
Over just a few hundred years...
Porous pavement doing what it does best, letting water pass right through. The secret is larger stones mixed in with the liquid asphalt or tar. Much smaller stones or even sand is the normal ingredient and that makes pavement non-porous.
``I'm a scientist and I don't tend to be alarmist, but there's a serious problem here," said Judith Pederson, a coastal resources specialist with Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sea Grant education and outreach program. ``Unfortunately, we really don't have good scientific data on the impact of this organism on other species. But the way this thing seems to be growing suggests it does have an impact on surrounding species."
