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Officially Listed as Endangered, Sturgeon Are on the Slow Way Back

2012-01-31T19:43:10Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

Our oceans are home to any number of remarkable, even bizarre, creatures. Today, one of the country’s largest—the Atlantic sturgeon—has officially been protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This marvelous, armor-plated fish can reach 14 feet and more than 800 pounds, and has a long snout with sensitive barbells, dangling feelers that, like a catfish’s “whiskers,” help the creature find food from ocean and river floors. But because of a myriad of harms, Atlantic sturgeon no longer dwell in many of their historic rivers and most of the remaining support only remnant spawning populations.

To prevent the Atlantic sturgeon from vanishing entirely, NRDC filed a petition in September of 2009 to list the fish under the ESA. Today, the petition was granted: the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) listed four distinct population segments (DPSs, which are treated as individual species under the law) as endangered: the New York Bight, the Chesapeake Bay, the Carolina, and the South Atlantic. All “take” of the fish—e.g., killing, collection, and harassment—is prohibited without a permit. The northernmost DPS, the Gulf of Maine, will be listed as threatened. The agency announcement says the listing will be published in the Federal Register on Feb. 6th.

Sturgeons co-existed with the dinosaurs, as befits their size and armor (the sides of sturgeons are lined with hard protruding plates called scutes). Atlantic sturgeon as a specific species hail from the Pleistocene epoch, from last ice age, 13,000 years ago. In the 1800s, huge numbers of Atlantic sturgeon were still swimming in rivers from Maine to Florida. The Delaware River alone supported an estimated population of more than 180,000 sturgeons. Now, just two rivers are believed to support more than 300 spawners (and the Delaware, formerly the county’s largest, isn’t one of them). For such depleted populations, any unusual loss, in any given year, could be a threat to long-term existence. Moreover, sturgeon grow and reproduce incredibly slowly. An anadramous fish (like salmon), they mature at sea before spawning in the river where they were born. On average, female Atlantic sturgeon first spawn at 15 years of age, and at two- to five-year intervals from then on. Since Atlantic sturgeon live to be 60, it takes three decades for a female to live up to just half her potential.

Atlantic sturgeon must negotiate a veritable minefield of dangers as they migrate up and down the coast and then, once they reach spawning age, make their way up their natal rivers and back down again. Over a century ago, before the fishery crashed, commercial harvest of Atlantic sturgeon for flesh and caviar peaked at 3,700 tons in a year. Fishing for them has been prohibited since 1998, but Atlantic sturgeon is often accidentally caught (what’s known as “bycatch”); for example, they become entangled in gill nets near the ocean floor, and suffocate. And sturgeon confront many other hazards, some of which are plain to see: dams impede passage to large spawning stretches, for instance, while dredging to maintain or deepen shipping channels destroys firm, prey-rich river and ocean bottom that sturgeon rely on and pollutes the water.

Many other hazards are less obvious to the eye, but no less real. For example, sturgeon are highly vulnerable to low dissolved oxygen levels, such as caused by “eutrophication,” which occurs when high levels of pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus cause algal blooms that leach oxygen from the water. Like dams, these invisible “hypoxic zones” become a deadly blockade for spawning sturgeon and other fish. Global warming exacerbates these conditions (for example, warmer waters hold less oxygen) and is generally making things less hospitable for this cool water fish.

Species survival is a measure of the health of our natural planet. That such a monstrous fish swam alongside dinosaurs—and then out swam their mass extinction—should give us hope that, with our protection, it will survive, and so will many other species. This fish is one that every kid in the country, while passing through his or her dinosaur phase, should learn of, to total amazement. But just think how stunned that same child then would be to hear that the Atlantic sturgeon continues to exist—and that we helped bring it back from the brink, for them to see.

Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce ... Menhaden?

2011-11-26T22:24:36Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

After the Mayflower landed on Cape Cod, Tisquantum—a Native American better known as Squanto, who lived among the nearby Wompanoag tribe—taught the Pilgrims how to properly fish in Massachusetts’s estuaries. Seafood, in fact, likely played a much larger role in the first Thanksgiving feast than the fare we typically enjoy today.

But Tisquantum taught the Pilgrims another important trick: how to plant some of their catch in agricultural fields. An acre of corn also seeded with fish has been said to yield three times as many ears. So early colonists buried river herring, shad, and undoubtedly menhaden, another fish in the Culpeidae family. Rhode Island’s Narragansett Tribe called this creature munnawhatteaug: “that which manures” or “he enriches the land.” Pogy, another nickname for menhaden, comes from the Maine Abenaki Indians’ paughagen, which also means “fertilizer.”

Menhaden act as fertilizer in more ways than one. They also help more generally to absorb and broadly redistribute nutrients in the coastal ecosystem. What’s crucial is that, unlike other species in the herring family, they only eat phytoplankton. In schools an acre in size, each menhaden can filter 4 to 8 gallons of water a minute, harnessing the energy that microscopic algae gather from the sun. When they’re eaten or decompose, they pass that energy through the food web.

Since few other fish capitalize on algae so profoundly and menhaden spawn prolifically, they became extraordinarily abundant on the Atlantic Coast. Menhaden once possibly exceeded all other East Coast fish combined in weight. Their huge schools were truly an edenic vision, if there ever was one. When Captain John Smith, the founder of Jamestown, Virginia, sailed through a school of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay, he told of “an aboundance of fish, lying so thicke with their heads above the water, as for want of nets (or barge driving among them) we attempted to catch them with a frying pan: but found it a bad instrument to catch fish with.”

But today, like so many other fish, the Atlantic menhaden has been overharvested. Estimated population levels have plummeted to just 10 percent of what they were historically. You’ll never find a menhaden on your plate—too bony and oily—but in the United States the fishery is second in weight only to Alaskan pollock. A company called Omega Protein harvests roughly 80 percent of the catch, which is then rendered as fertilizer, fish and livestock feed, additions to cosmetic products, and dietary supplements (since menhaden are rich in omega-3 fatty acids). The rest is used as bait in lobster and crab pots, or by non-commercial anglers who “snag” menhaden to hook on their lines in hopes of luring a bluefish or striped bass, which follow the schools.

Fortunately the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission took action to protect the menhaden, voting recently to cut its harvest by as much as 37 percent by 2013. That decision should be applauded. Menhaden aren’t as far toward the brink as river herring, which NRDC petitioned to be listed under the Endangered Species Act, but they’re also edging in that direction. So it’s good to see we’re taking early action to ensure the continued stability of this fish, which has been described as “the most important fish in the sea.” Now we must be sure to develop a management plan that will actually achieve this level of conservation.

“There’s really not much in the ocean that is as healthy to eat, pound for pound, as menhaden,” Peter Baker, the director of Northeast fisheries at the Pew Environment Group, recently told the New York Times. “If these other species [like bluefish and striped bass] don’t have menhaden in their diet it becomes less nutritious and they’re more susceptible to disease.”

And we become more susceptible, too. The tiny menhaden not only support the larger fish we eat, they also help decrease algal blooms, reducing the occurrence of hypoxic (low oxygen) zones. With the decline of the East Coast’s oyster beds, pogy are now more important than ever when it comes to filtering the water in our bays and estuaries. We have plenty of reasons to be thankful for menhaden.

NRDC's Petition for ESA Listing of River Herring Clears First Hurdle

2011-11-02T17:52:53Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

In early August, NRDC submitted a petition to list both blueback herring and alewife as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Together these fish are called “river herring.” Yesterday, NOAA announced that our petition made the case that a listing may be warranted. The agency will now take the next 12 months to conduct a full scientific review of these ecologically-important fish and decide whether to take action. If they ultimately agree with us—if they agree that river herring are in dire straits—then they will propose an ESA listing for public comment.

With large dark eyes and a black shoulder spot behind the gills, these silver fish cut through the water like hatchets. But river herring aren’t just flashy. As a key link in the Atlantic’s coastal food web, they’re ecologically and economically indispensable. They support innumerable predator species, eat clouds of algae, and enrich rivers with their bodies, like they once fertilized the crops of Native Americans and colonists.

During a strong springtime “run” back then, a river or brook might at times have seemed more herring than water. But since the mid-20th century, catch of Atlantic river herring has plummeted by more than 98 percent. In waterways where millions once swam in jaw-dropping mass—jumping up and over waterfalls in a relentless drive to reach their natal spawning grounds—now only thousands return. Or just hundreds. Today river herring confront far more than waterfalls: fish trawlers, dams, dredging, pollution, and, of course, global warming.

If river herring aren’t officially protected, these hurdles might prove insurmountable. So, while NOAA’s finding is a preliminary step, it’s definitely in the right direction. It is now important for everyone who cares about the future of these important species to weigh in with the agency, which is accepting comment on the possible listing. You may submit comments until January 2, 2012, identified by the RIN 0648–XA739, here. You may also submit comments by mail to the following address: Assistant Regional Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Please stay tuned for NOAA’s decision down the line, and for other ways you might be able to help river herring and our oceans.

It's Time to Save Our Threatened River Herring

2011-08-02T13:09:40Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

Among all the awe-inspiring phenomena of the natural world, the immense spawning runs of alewife and blueback herring along the Atlantic Coast ranks highly. Not long ago, these platinum, big-eyed fish poured into estuaries and up rivers in such overwhelming numbers that, to the human eye or imagination, a river might seem to run backward, for an instant. Collectively known as “river herring,” they fed Native Americans and early settlers—and they still nurture our ecosystems. Not only are they fundamental to both marine and freshwater food webs as prey species, but those fish that die after spawning also fertilize their natal streams, much like salmon.

Unfortunately, after centuries of overfishing, dam construction, water pollution and other harms—which now increasingly includes the effects of global warming—the annual pulses of river herring have slowed to a relative trickle. And there’s concern that they could disappear entirely in the future. So today NRDC is submitting a petition to the federal government to list the alewife and blueback herring as “threatened” species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus)

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The precipitous decline of river herring is made clear by fish counts and records of commercial landings. From 1950 to 1970, the Atlantic catch averaged over 50 million pounds per year; in the last decade, however, an average of just over one million pounds has been hauled in, a plunge of 98 percent. Meanwhile, in individual rivers where millions once swam, returning river herring number in the thousands, or even hundreds. To cite just a couple of examples, counts in Connecticut River fell from an average of 5.4 million from 1981 to 1995, to an average of 1 million by 2001, to an average of only 300,000 by just 2008. And in the Susquehanna River, which drains into Chesapeake Bay, blueback herring passed by the Conowingo Dam East fish passage dropped from almost 285,000 counted fish in 2001 to just 4 fish in 2010. The same story is playing out up and down the Eastern seaboard.

From the start, the industrial development of the Atlantic seaboard took its toll on the river herring. Milldams obstructed their passage to spawning beds, and factories poured toxics into streams – problems that persist, in part, to this day. Nutrient pollution from farms and cities is increasingly a problem, fueling algal blooms that leach oxygen from rivers and bays, creating “hypoxic zones” that cause large die-offs of fish and impassable stretches of river. Now there’s a new threat in the New England ocean waters where river herring congregate to overwinter – more and larger factory trawlers are fishing for ocean herring and mackerel, and are scooping up significant numbers of river herring in the process.

Blueback Herring (Alosa aestivalis)

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Climate change is compounding the river herring’s plight, since they depend on subtle cues of temperature and chemistry. Warmer waters might shift anadromous fish runs earlier in the season, out of synch with their other seasonal conditions, or even away from their natal rivers, as well as promote hypoxic conditions. Additionally, as increasingly volatile weather patterns emerge, larger storms will make spawning more difficult and sweep away more eggs and juveniles (and only 1 percent typically survives, as it is).

Alewife and blueback herring each deserve to be listed as a whole, at the species level, for if they’re to adapt to climate change, it’s crucial to maintain the full suite of their genetic diversity. Barring that, they should be listed as distinct population segments (DPSs), which are treated as species under the ESA. For both fish, the DPSs would include the Central New England, Long Island Sound, and Chesapeake Bay regions (and for the alewife, the Carolina region as well). Since river herring return to their natal stream to spawn, each river represents a partially isolated and unique population; however, a certain amount of “straying” into neighboring rivers does occur within DPSs, which fosters commonalities. For example, northern alewives can tolerate colder water temperatures better than southern populations, thanks to antifreeze qualities in their blood.

As of yet, river herring don’t have a federal fishery management plan to help them, like many fish do under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). Four states have prohibited their harvest—Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina—but that hasn’t proved enough to bolster their numbers. The fish need the type of comprehensive management and protection afforded by the ESA, which entails an official recovery plan. Hopefully it would require new measures for reducing river herring catch in ocean waters --- measures that have been resisted to date – as well as habitat protection, like dam removal (or improved fish ladders) and restrictions to minimize nutrient runoff in rivers.

NMFS has 90 days to determine if our petition shows that a “threatened” listing for river herring may be warranted. If they agree, then the agency will have another year to decide if it will, in fact, list the fish. In the meantime, please lend your voice to the Atlantic river herring’s case, so that NMFS makes the right decision. The staggering yearly migration of river herring was once a symbol of North America’s biological richness and fecundity. With our vigilance, it can be so again.

Celebrating Our Oceans and Their Special Places

2011-06-08T15:05:16Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

Today is World Oceans Day—and a global celebration couldn’t be more apt, since the seas unite us all, biologically and economically. Some, when they think of our communal oceans, might think only of vast, blue expanses, but deep within them exist communities as dense and varied—and as grand (in a different way) —as the metropolises we’ve constructed. Many are not that far away, either. For instance, an underwater channel that extends from the New York/New Jersey Harbor drops suddenly into a steep submarine canyon at the edge of the continental shelf. This canyon, called Hudson Canyon, is just one of string of such canyons running from Cape Hatteras to east of Cape Cod. They contain landscapes with contours not unlike Arizona’s Grand Canyon, only flooded. Hard to believe? Watch this new NRDC film, Ocean Oases, narrated by Philippe Cousteau, about both the Atlantic canyons and several equally-spectacular nearby dormant volcanoes called seamounts that rise thousands of feet from the ocean depths.

The Atlantic canyons and seamounts are home to an extraordinary universe of life, from a living seafloor of vibrant and rare coldwater corals, anemones and sponges all the way up the food chain to an array of marine mammals, like the endangered sperm whale, which has the largest brain of any animal (up to 20 pounds), is the world’s deepest-diving mammal, and can eat up to a ton of squid and fish a day. The rich waters of many of the canyons are also important fishing spots, attracting commercial and recreational fishermen alike to the schools of squid and mackerel and the bigger (sometime much bigger) fish like marlin, tuna, and swordfish that feed on them.

As the film explains, humans haven’t yet invaded the deep and pristine recesses of these unique ocean features. But this may not last. New “canyon buster” and “rock hopper” trawling gear make fishing along the bottom – as opposed to higher in the water column -- of these previously-inaccessible areas now possible. With a single pass of such a “bottom trawling” net, we can destroy habitats so colorful they might rival Times Square, if only light filtered that deep, including corals that have taken hundreds of years to grow. And seismic oil and gas exploration is poised to begin off the Eastern Seaboard, which not only presages potential drilling, but also is in itself harmful to marine mammals, as you’ll learn in the film.

NRDC is working to ensure that our ocean canyons and seamounts aren’t scoured or their resources irretrievably harmed. To date, four Atlantic canyons have been declared off-limits to harmful bottom trawling, and we’re working with regional fisheries councils to make sure more are recognized for the amazing environments that they are. And we’ll be objecting to any proposals to use harmful seismic testing methods in the canyons (the next opportunity for the public to make its opinion known will likely be in the fall). Please stay tuned for how you can help protect these amazing ocean oases. In the meantime, please watch Ocean Oases, and be sure to do something else special in honor of World Oceans Day.

Proposed JFK Expansion Would Harm Jamaica Bay

2011-03-18T19:43:39Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

Today, NRDC and nineteen other environmental and civic groups sent a letter to New York officials opposing a recent proposal to expand John F. Kennedy airport into Jamaica Bay. Such development would have unacceptable impacts on what’s widely considered New York City’s ecological crown jewel – impacts that should more than give planners pause as they consider how to deal with regional airport needs.

Jamaica Bay is the massive expanse of wetlands that you see when flying into or out of JFK. It’s made up of 25,000 acres of water, marsh, meadowland, beaches, dunes and forests in Brooklyn and Queens. As I’ve written before, the bay is home to an astonishing diversity of animal life, including 80 different fish species, as well as the occasional sea turtle and porpoise. The bay is located on the Atlantic flyway, making it an oasis for birds migrating through our country’s largest and most densely populated city.

The area is also a treasure trove of recreational opportunities such as boating, fishing, and birding for the half million New Yorkers who live around the bay. It contains a federal wildlife refuge the size of 10 Central Parks, a portion of Gateway National Recreation Area, Bayswater State Park and nearly a dozen city parks. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently described it as one of America’s “great urban parks.”

If the JFK expansion plan were to move forward, hundreds of acres of the bay would need to be permanently filled in, something currently prohibited by federal law. Intrusive commercial jet noise would increase and wildlife conflicts with aviation safety would escalate. Water pollution from the airport, which currently discharges run-off from the millions of gallons of toxic deicing fluids directly into the bay, would also likely increase.

There’s a significant amount of work and money going into restoring New York City’s waterfront. Just this Monday, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled “Vision 2020” – a $3 billion plan to restore the City’s 520 miles of shoreline – that includes projects to improve environmental and recreational values in and around Jamaica Bay. And last year, the City committed more than $100 million to upgrading sewage treatment plants discharging into the bay and to restoring its marsh islands. It’s hard to imagine that any future vision for Jamaica Bay that would include increased pollution and jet noise.

In January, the Regional Planning Association (RPA) released a study (funded by the Port Authority) that analyzed an array of options for accommodating projected growth in regional aviation demand. The study listed JFK expansion into the bay as a solution, but also laid out alternatives, including strategies encompassing an additional runway at JFK that does not require filling or additional flights over Jamaica Bay, expansion of New Jersey’s Newark Airport, and technological improvements in air traffic control, along with a variety of other structural and operational upgrades in the regional airport system.

NRDC is urging the Port Authority – the agency in charge of deciding how to proceed – to consider these alternatives to harming Jamaica Bay. Protecting the health of this invaluable natural resource should be a priority, for the people and wildlife that currently depend on it and for future generations that will need its refuge.

Federal Government Schedules Public Hearings for Proposal to List Atlantic Sturgeon as Endangered Species

2010-11-01T21:22:22Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service will hold four public hearings over the course of the next two weeks to hear from the public about the recent proposal to list the Atlantic sturgeon as endangered.

The hearings will be held at the following locations:

Portland, Maine November 3, 2010 7 to 9 p.m. Eastland Park Hotel, 157 High Street

Newport News, Virginia November 4, 2010 7 to 9 p.m. Point Plaza Suites at City Center, 950 J. Clyde Morris Boulevard

Stony Brook, New York November 8, 2010 7 to 9 p.m. SUNY Stony Brook, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, 100 Nicholls Road

Wilmington, Delaware November 9, 2010 7 to 9 p.m. Doubletree Hotel Wilmington Downtown, 700 North King Street

If you can, please attend one of these hearings and voice your support for the listing proposal and for protecting the Atlantic sturgeon. The Fisheries Service says that it is also interested in gathering information at these hearings about the “abundance and distribution of these fish, viability of and threats to them, and efforts underway to protect Atlantic sturgeon belonging to these populations.”

Last September, NRDC petitioned the federal government to list the Atlantic sturgeon because populations of the gargantuan fish (it can grow to 14 feet and 800 pounds) had plummeted as a result of bycatch, pollution, dams, dredging, and ship strikes. Early last month, NMFS agreed. It proposed to list four out of five so-called distinct population segments (DPSs) of Atlantic sturgeon – spanning from the South Atlantic up to the New York Bight – as endangered, which is the most protective designation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The agency is proposing to list the Gulf of Maine DPS, at the northern end of the species’ U.S. range, as threatened.

See my previous blogs for more about this fascinating species and NRDC’s effort to get it protected status. The federal government also has additional information about the public hearings and the proposed listing here.

Federal Government Proposes to List Atlantic Sturgeon as Endangered Species

2010-10-07T18:15:20Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

Some good news on NRDC’s Atlantic sturgeon listing petition: the federal government agreed this week that the Atlantic sturgeon should be listed as an endangered species. The Atlantic sturgeon is a prehistoric-looking behemoth of a fish, growing up to 14 feet long, weighing as much as 800 pounds, and with armor-like plates protruding from much of its body. While targeted sturgeon harvesting is no longer allowed, the fish has nearly vanished from our rivers and ocean as a result of a gauntlet of harms, including bycatch (this is when the species is caught by fishermen targeting other species), pollution, dams, dredging, ship strikes, and -- increasingly -- the effects of global warming.

NRDC filed its petition last September. In January, 2010, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) determined the listing might be warranted and initiated a detailed review. Atlantic sturgeon once spawned in dozens of rivers from Maine to Florida. Their numbers reached tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands in some rivers. Commercial harvest of Atlantic sturgeon once approached 3,700 tons. Today, however, spawning populations in nine U.S. rivers are believed to have gone extinct. Most of the remaining rivers have populations so depleted -- ~1% of historic numbers -- that their numbers cannot be reliably estimated and their present day survival is in question.

NMFS is proposing to list four out of five so-called distinct population segments (DPSs) of Atlantic sturgeon – spanning from the South Atlantic up to the New York Bight – as endangered, which is the most protective designation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The agency is proposing to list the Gulf of Maine DPS, at the northern end of the species’ U.S. range, as threatened. In its listing proposal, NMFS identified bycatch of Atlantic sturgeon as a more significant threat than previously believed. So-called sink gill nets are particularly deadly to Atlantic sturgeons as they get caught up in the nets near the bottom of the water column and suffocate. NMFS also highlighted the looming threat that climate change poses to the species, particularly in the more southern parts of its range, including as a result of increased water temperatures and water pollution.

Atlantic sturgeon live most of their lives in the ocean – and they do not reproduce quickly. When males reach around 10 years of age and females around 15 years, they return to the river where they were hatched to spawn. They do not spawn every year. Females spawn every 2-5 years and males every 1-5 years. Atlantic sturgeon can live up to 60 years and females, on average, do not reach 50 percent of maximum lifetime egg production until they are 29 years old, which is 3-10 times later than other bony fish species.

NFMS is accepting comments on the proposed listing until January 4, 2011 here. The agency has split up the listing process, with one proposed rule, which is identified with the rule identifier number (RIN) 0648-XJ00, covering the Gulf of Maine, New York Bight, and Chesapeake DPSs, and another identified as RIN 0648-XN50 covering the Carolina and South Atlantic DPSs. If you want to comment on both proposed listings, you need to be sure to submit your comments in both rulemaking processes. Additional instructions for submitting comments, including by fax or mail, are provided in yesterday’s Federal Register notices here (for the three northern DPSs) and here (for the two southern DPSs).

If the Atlantic sturgeon is listed under the ESA, it will be much better protected. Thus, it is important for everyone who cares about the future of this fascinating species to weigh in with the agency in the next three months. I will be sure to let you know about additional developments in the weeks and months ahead, as well as any new opportunities for you to take action to save the Atlantic sturgeon.

New Hope for Jamaica Bay

2010-02-25T17:00:01Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

The preliminary agreement being announced today between New York City, New York State, NRDC and several other citizen groups to clean up Jamaica Bay promises to be a game changer for this unique resource (my colleague Larry Levine makes this clear in his post today here). Among other things, in a resolution of a long-running dispute over the city’s Clean Water Act permits, the agreement calls for major sewage treatment plant upgrades, new stricter permit terms to lock in the upgrades and resulting water quality improvements in the future, and improved water quality monitoring in the bay.

What is Jamaica Bay, you ask?

I don’t doubt that many of you had never heard of it, or at most have only obliquely encountered it when coming in for a landing at JFK International Airport (perhaps you wondered to yourself: “what’s this huge wetland we’re flying over?”). But Jamaica Bay deserves a much larger role in the city’s, indeed the region’s, environmental consciousness. It is the crown jewel of the city’s ecological resources, with more than 25,000 acres of water, marsh, meadowland, beaches, dunes and forests in Brooklyn and Queens (see map here) that is home to an astonishing diversity of animal life, including 80 different fish species as well as the occasional sea turtle and porpoise. The bay is particularly invaluable for birds, as it is located on the Atlantic flyway and serves as an oasis as they migrate through our country’s largest and most densely populated city. It is estimated that nearly 20 percent of North America's bird species visit Jamaica Bay annually. (Read more about the ecosystem in our fact sheet here.)

Photo by Don Riepe

I like to describe Jamaica Bay as the one place in New York City where nature is so dominant that it makes the city a backdrop, literally and figuratively. In Jamaica Bay, the panoramic Manhattan skyline seems an abstraction, akin to a movie set background (albeit a dramatic one). The vast expanse of the marshes and water and the bay’s sounds and smells -- the salt air, the buzz of the insects, the calls of the migrating songbirds, and flocks of floating ducks and grebes – are that powerful.

Given that more than a half million New Yorkers do in fact live in its watershed/sewershed, Jamaica Bay serves as an attractive and accessible fishing and boating area as well. Its marsh islands provide flood protection for the surrounding homes and businesses. And, because most of the bay is publicly-owned and under some type of protected status, it will remain – if cared for -- a keystone component of the city’s natural and social heritage for generations to come.

Photo by Don Riepe

Various initiatives have been launched over the years to protect and restore Jamaica Bay. Most recently, in 2007, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan (find it here). DEP is currently implementing the plan, with updates every two years. NRDC served as a co-chair of the Advisory Committee that helped DEP in developing the plan.

The Advisory Committee’s #1 recommendation to DEP was to drastically reduce nitrogen pollution in the bay. Almost 40,000 pounds of nitrogen a day pour into the bay from four city sewage treatment plants, making it among the most nitrogen-polluted water bodies in the world. The excess nitrogen causes harmful algae blooms that frequently render portions of the bay inhospitable to marine life and unusable for people. There is also mounting evidence that elevated nitrogen levels are contributing to the rapid erosion of the marsh islands. It was the Advisory Committee’s determination, one shared by many other experts, that the bay’s ecosystem will not survive without a substantial reduction in nitrogen loadings.

But today is a new beginning for Jamaica Bay – the city promises to do exactly that. The agreed-to sewage treatment plant upgrades are expected to cut nearly in half the city’s current nitrogen discharges to the bay. As Larry Levine cautions, we certainly still need to finalize what right now remains only an agreement in principle. But if we do finalize it, and we fully expect we will, then the bay truly has a new lease on life.

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Order Throwing Out Permits for Controversial Everglades Mining Project

2010-01-22T17:10:24Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

The 11th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the decision by a federal district court in Miami to vacate a controversial set of permits for a massive mining project located near Everglades National Park that would have threatened to contaminate Miami-Dade County's largest freshwater wellfield. The appeals court agreed with the district court that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had failed to properly consider whether there were practicable alternatives to the mining.

As the appeals court noted, the so-called “Lake Belt” mining project pits the “competing interests” of the mining companies against “the need for public drinking water” and “the protection and restoration of the ecology of south Florida, increasingly threatened by mining, development, and agriculture.” The mining threatens to introduce dangerous bacteria and cancer-causing chemicals into local wells. It would harm tens of thousands of acres of irreplaceable historic Everglades wetlands habitat, even though the U.S. Department of Interior has warned that these wetlands are “the last remnant of the short hydroperiod marshes that are critical to the proper functioning of the Everglades ecosystem” and their conversion to “deep, open-water lakes removes an extensive area of this critical wetland habitat from the system, replacing it with non-natural habitat of little or no value to the Everglades ecosystem.” The permanent creation of the 80-foot deep mining lakes will also significantly increase harmful drainage or “seepage” out of the adjacent Everglades National Park and other publicly-owned wetlands, undermining restoration initiatives underway such as the multi-billion dollar federal-state Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

Yesterday’s decision by the 11th Circuit affirmed a January 2009 decision by senior Judge William M. Hoeveler. This decision was the most recent by the senior judge, who has scrupulously presided over an almost decade-long legal effort by NRDC, Sierra Club and the National Parks Conservation Association to ensure that the Corps complies with environmental laws and uses the best available science in approving mining in the Lake Belt.

In recent years, federal and county scientists have become increasingly concerned that the current half-mile buffer zone around 15 wells near the planned mining is dangerously inadequate. In 2005 and 2006, the County detected benzene at levels above the applicable limit at several of the wells, and in the surrounding groundwater. Although benzene levels appear to have abated, petroleum-based blasting materials used by the mining companies have been considered the most likely source.

NRDC and the other environmental groups have long warned the mining projects could allow potentially lethal parasites, including cryptosporidium, to enter the drinking water system. In 1993, water-borne cryptosporidium caused 400,000 people in Milwaukee to experience intestinal illness. More than 4,000 were hospitalized, and at least 50 deaths were attributed to the disease. Because of this and other contamination incidents, EPA has strengthened drinking water regulations to protect against disease-causing organisms.

A strong note of caution: I fear that these recent legal victories in favor of public health and the Everglades may be short-lived. Somewhat unbelievably, the Corps is poised to re-issue the very same permits just rejected by the federal courts and the issuance of new permits of indefinite duration that would authorize an additional 10,000-12,000 acres of wetlands loss. Together with existing mining pits, this amounts to an approximately 30 square mile expanse of mining pits potentially lining the eastern side of the remaining publicly-owned Everglades. The proposed mining permits are opposed by NRDC and the other plaintiff organizations, as well as by the Everglades Coalition, an alliance of 52 local, state, and national conservation and environmental organizations dedicated to full restoration of the greater Everglades ecosystem.

I hope that the Obama Administration considers yesterday’s court decision as sufficient reason to put the brakes on this sweeping mining proposal. Demand for the limestone from these mines is dramatically down. Under the Florida Department of Transportation’s most likely growth scenarios, statewide consumption of limestone is projected to increase only to 50-60% of previous peaks in the next five years – and an increasing share of this consumption is now derived from granite and other out-of-state sources. Indeed, the miners are now shipping the rock dug out of the Everglades to Panama! There is no better opportunity for taking a time-out to provide for careful application of our laws intended to protect the environment and public health.

Driving bluefin tuna to extinction

2010-01-12T14:55:22Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

It was reported last week that a bluefin tuna just fetched a record-breaking 16.28 million yen ($175,000) at the Tokyo fish market. This is a stark illustration of the risk faced by global bluefin tuna populations. There’s a belief out there by some that a fish species will become economically extinct, meaning costs to catch it become too high and demand collapses, before it becomes ecologically extinct. Well, we certainly can’t count on this applying to bluefin tuna. There looks to be interest in hunting this spectacular species – which can swim almost 45 miles per hour and weigh up to 1,500 pounds -- right into extinction.

Atlantic bluefin tuna are particularly at risk. According to scientists for the relevant international management body, Atlantic bluefin tuna populations are at no more than 15 percent of their historic baseline. And, there is good reason to believe that even this assessment is far too rosy. Soon-to-be published studies are expected to show current levels of fishing will lead to the extinction of the western population of Atlantic bluefin within 10 years and that the decline in the eastern population between 2005 and 2011 may reach 75%.

What can we do to save Atlantic bluefin? Monaco has proposed to list Atlantic bluefin tuna in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The U.S. needs to support Monaco’s pending listing proposal vigorously. Also, the U.S. needs to abandon its proposal to loosen restrictions on Atlantic bluefin catch off our shores (the fish has become so rare that U.S. fishermen have been unable to catch the full quota assigned to them under international treaty). Finally, we need to stop allowing the catch of Atlantic bluefin in their spawning area in the Gulf of Mexico, the only known spawning site this side of the Atlantic.

NRDC’s Petition to List Atlantic Sturgeon as Endangered Clears First Hurdle

2010-01-06T20:50:02Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

The federal government said today that it will consider placing the prehistoric-looking Atlantic sturgeon – which can grow up to 14 feet long, weigh over 800 pounds, and have armor-like plates protruding from much of their body – on its list of endangered species.This decision was in response to NRDC’s petition to list the species, filed on September 30, 2009.

As I wrote about at the time of the petition’s filing, Atlantic sturgeon once spawned in dozens of rivers from Maine to Florida. Their numbers reached tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands in some rivers. Today, however, spawning populations in nine U.S. rivers have gone extinct. Most of the remaining rivers have populations so depleted that their numbers cannot be reliably estimated and their present day survival is in question. The species’ plight is a result of bycatch (while targeted sturgeon harvesting is no longer allowed, so-called bycatch of the species still occurs in other fisheries), pollution, dams, dredging, ship strikes, and warming ocean temperatures.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) was required by law to decide within 90 days from the filing of our petition whether it believed we had provided substantial information indicating that endangered listing may be warranted. Now that NMFS has agreed that the petition established this much, the agency has 12 months to make a final determination on whether or not to actually list the Atlantic sturgeon.

NMFS is currently soliciting comments from the public on the possible listing. The agency will accept comments until February 5 here; identify your comments with this regulation identifier number (RIN): 0648 XT28. Instructions for submitting comments by fax or mail are provided in today’s Federal Register notice here.

It is important for everyone who cares about the future of this fascinating species to weigh in with the agency now. We will have a final decision on whether or not the government will list this mighty fish as endangered within the next 12 months. I will be sure to let you know about additional developments in the weeks and months ahead, as well as any new opportunities for you to take action to save the Atlantic sturgeon.

NRDC Petitions to List Atlantic Sturgeon as Endangered

2009-10-15T13:54:32Z

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney, New York

Atlantic sturgeon co-existed with dinosaurs - and they look like it. They can grow up to 14 feet long, weigh over 800 pounds, and have armor-like plates protruding from much of their body. They can also live up to 60 years of age. But modern times have not been kind to this unique fish. And so last month I filed a petition with the federal government to place the Atlantic sturgeon on its list of endangered species.

Atlantic sturgeon once spawned in dozens of rivers from Maine to Florida. Their numbers reached tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands in some rivers. Today, however, spawning populations in nine U.S. rivers have gone extinct. Most of the remaining rivers have populations so depleted that their numbers cannot be reliably estimated and their present day survival is in question. The Delaware River, once home to the largest Atlantic sturgeon population in the U.S., with an estimated over 180,000 adults, is now estimated to have fewer than 300 adult sturgeon left -- a decline of 99.8 percent.

In 1998, a coastwide fishing moratorium finally stopped more than a century of massive overharvesting for meat and caviar. But this has not proved enough to rescue Atlantic sturgeon, which still confront a gauntlet of other harms, including bycatch in other fisheries (the term bycatch refers to fish caught when targeting different species), pollution, dams, dredging, ship strikes, and warming ocean temperatures, as they traverse coastal waterways and ocean waters. Up and down the coast, in rivers and estuaries where they were once abundant and their spawning runs were once cultural fixtures, Atlantic sturgeon continue to disappear.

However imposing they are as physical specimens, Atlantic sturgeon, like most sturgeons, are actually highly vulnerable to harvesting and habitat damage. They spawn late in life and infrequently, and are very sensitive to low oxygen levels that result from water pollution, as well as certain toxic pollutants. Most of the eight North American species of sturgeon are already listed and therefore protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It is now clear that Atlantic sturgeon need similar protection. And it is noteworthy that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) actually convened a panel of scientists several years ago to look into whether Atlantic sturgeon should be listed under the ESA. In 2007, the scientists recommended the species should be listed. Needless to say, NMFS has not yet acted on the scientists' recommendations.

If listed, Atlantic sturgeon would be better protected against such threats as bycatch in ocean fisheries, which studies estimate kills more than 1,000 Atlantic sturgeon annually. And depending on the specific river system, they will also be better protected from water pollution, dredging, ship strikes, and/or the adverse effects of dams.

So what happens next? The petition was filed on September 30th. Under the law, NMFS has 90 days to decide whether it believes we've provided substantial information indicating that endangered listing may be warranted. Assuming that NMFS agrees that the petition establishes at least this much, the agency then has 12 months to make a final determination on whether or not to actually list the Atlantic sturgeon. As part of this process, the agency would solicit public comments, and it will be important that everyone who cares about the fate of the species to weigh in.

So we will know more soon. Join me here to follow the new developments, and learn about opportunities for you to join in the effort to save this magnificent fish.