NJ Coastal Water Health Investigation Using Glider

This week a submerisible vehicle, an autonomous Slocum glider, was released off the New Jersey coast to collect important data on the health of the water. EPA, DEP and Rutgers have teamed up to conduct these high-tech monitoring efforts.  Clean Ocean Action called for and has supported more data collection along the coast and is glad to see that these efforts that continue to evaluate marine life health by documenting dissolved oxygen conditions.

“The glider, resembling a yellow torpedo with swept-back wings, will zigzag as it makes its way south to Cape May, taking rapid-fire readings of dissolved oxygen, salinity and temperature at various depths. The data will be analyzed by DEP scientists, as the agency works to better understand why the ocean off New Jersey tends to have low levels of oxygen, particularly in the summer.”

Last year, the glider observed stratification of the water column, with warmer waters overlying cold waters below.  Coastal upwelling and a massive algal bloom also occurred that was eventually broken up after the passage of Hurricane Irene which mixed the water layers.

This year gliders have documented more mixed waters in June than seen last year, and unusually warm waters earlier this spring. For the full story, click here.

Check on the http://maracoos.org/ main page too for science updates on the New York/New Jersey Bight. There is real-time data for the Mid-Atlantic Bight, research updates, and a blog that explains some of the research and events that occur.  Plus a new app for rip tides along parts of the Jersey Shore has been posted by Stevens Institute, so you can enjoy the waters and stay safe!

Ecosystem Modeling to Inform Management

Marine Ecosystem Food Web from NOAA's Website

Managing the coastal environment and activities that affect it requires understanding the dynamics of the coast and the life within it.   Decisions based on only a single species or narrow considerations of the environment can have unintended consequences.  Before large scale offshore projects are approved, the overall impacts need to be known.  A big picture perspective that includes key components of the environment is needed for effective ecosystem based management. 

For example, fish abundance and the type of fish present in coastal area depends on currents, water temperature and salinity, availability of food and hiding areas, presence of predators and pollution.  Looking at only a few of these components in isolation does not reflect what actually happens in the environment.

Knowing how physical, biological and geochemical  components interact is critical for predicting impacts of different policy decisions and actions.  Given that there are so many different components to the environment and interactions between these, ecosystem modeling is a useful tool to put it all the pieces together.

Models are like a map which serves to represent reality and can help guide us how to get to where we want to go.  Models are only as useful as the quality of the data and assumptions that they are built on.  Significant advances have been made in modeling capabilities and making them easier to set up and use, and multiple models are useful to evaluate management decisions. 

Models can replicate historic changes and be used to assess relative impacts of human actions and environmental changes and improve efforts to predict future changes. 

Its important that stakeholders and the public have the opportunity to be involved in modeling process that inform management decisions to ensure that models are directed and used effectively. 

COA recently attended an ecosystem modeling workshop. Click here for more information.

Underwater video produced using ecosystem modeling information on Chesapeake Bay

Maps! Maps! Maps!

EPA Water Pollution and Enforcement Maps of NJ & NY Paint an Interesting Picture

EPA’s “ECHO” initiative (for “Enforcement and Compliance History Online”) has finalized a new series of interactive maps and datasets to help YOU, the ordinary citizen, visualize how our water laws, regulations, and protections are enforced.

These maps are searchable, you can zoom into your neighborhood, and color-coded for easy interpretations. 

For instance, take the “State Dashboard” for New Jersey and New York.

These maps let you see which facilities were inspected, given violations, subject to enforcement, and issued penalties.   Also, you can search in specific ZIP Codes to see all the problems around your house.

There’s also a combined Air/Water/Waste enforcement maps (complete with 2011 data).  Each bubble on the map (representing an enforcement action of some type) can be clicked on and a link to the EPA or State page with more information appears.  The home page for these enforcement maps shows the number of violations in 2011; apparently Louisiana (439 violations), NY (416), and California (296) were the states home to the most Air/Water/Waste violations!

Here’s the map for the 07732 ZIP – home to Clean Ocean Action (on Sandy Hook):

EPA (blue) and State (purple) enforcement actions for water (triangle) and waste (circle) violations (2011 data).

For an “Annual Noncompliance report” map – to compare, with ease, States against other states, click here.  Check out the map for NJ’s general water statistics which shows that, in 2009, NJ assessed around $2.4 million in penalties on 67 violations (out of 98 total violations):

Data for number of facilities in New Jersey, number with violations, and number of enforcement actions.

The EPA’s recently re-done “EJ Map” (for Environmental Justice) lets you map a variety of things from streams and rivers with water quality below standards to Superfund and brownfield sites or recent toxic spills.  Click here for the EJ Map and play around with the features to get a good idea of what’s happening in your neighborhood.

The most recent Map, the “Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool” lets you compare sources of pollution state-by-state, so you can see, for instance, that New York has fewer wastewater treatment facilities that violated their limits for “priority pollutants” (31) than Pennsylvania (62), but more than New Jersey (26) in 2010.

For other EPA Maps, go to their ECHO map portal here.

Tracking Greenhouse Gas Emissions – New EPA Map!

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a new map for tracking greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions from major industrial sources across the United States.

Under the Clean Air Act, and the “Massachusetts v. EPA” decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007, the EPA has the authority to regulate pollution from major industrial facilities.  GHGs, defined by the EPA as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), are considered to be pollutants by the courts and the EPA when emitted in huge quantities by these “major” sources.

On the map, you can view the emissions of facilities like power plants and landfills, and compare and contrast states, zip codes, facilities, etc.  It really is a well-designed (if a bit “full of information”) map!

Access the map here: http://ghgdata.epa.gov/ghgp/main.do

According to the EPA, these GHGs contribute to the Greenhouse Effect which is defined as:

Trapping and build-up of heat in the atmosphere (troposphere) near the Earth’s surface. Some of the heat flowing back toward space from the Earth's surface is absorbed by water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, and several other gases in the atmosphere and then reradiated back toward the Earth’s surface. If the atmospheric concentrations of these greenhouse gases rise, the average temperature of the lower atmosphere will gradually increase.

This Greenhouse Effect, coupled with ocean currents and other natural processes that distribute heat across the globe, contribute to Climate Change, defined by the EPA as:

Any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer).

Climate change may result from, according to the EPA:

• natural factors, such as changes in the sun's intensity or slow changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun;
• natural processes within the climate system (e.g. changes in ocean circulation);
• activities that change the atmosphere's composition (e.g. through burning fossil fuels) and the land surface (e.g. deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.) 

So check out the map!

You're invited to attend the Jellyfish Symposium!

Have you been reading our blog and wondering how you can learn more about issues that COA works on? 

Great news!  COA has partnered with some fantastic groups to bring you the Jellyfish Symposium.  Here you will have the opportunity to learn about Jellyfish, better understand the problems associated with them and find out what you can do to make a difference!

Join us for an evening of of learning, collaboration and community!

Space is limited, so please remember to RSVP!

See you there!

Presentations Include:

• “The Study of the ‘Settling’ of Jellies and Where They Live” by Monica Buesser and Paul Bologna; Montclair State University
• “The global nature of the jellyfish problem and some of the possible reasons why the stinging sea nettle has become invasive in the Barnegat Bay” by Jim Vasslides; Barnegat Bay Partnership
• “What to do if you are stung by a sea nettle, and the Sea Nettle Warning System Program with the Barnegat Bay Partnership.”  by Matt Csik; Ocean County Health Department
• “How Sailing Clubs are Impacted by Sea Nettles” by Nelson Sailing Center
• Ways You Can Help
• Barnegat Bay Buddy program
• Introducing NJ’s Fertilizer Law