Environment

Dear Gov,

Thanks for taking the initiative to lead our state to find more sources of renewable energy. I appreciate your decision to seek bids from private developers to build and operate an offshore wind farm designed to generate 1.3-million megawatt-hours per year just south of Block Island in a move that would also significantly lower the cost of electricity on Block Island. It makes me proud of my adopted state, Rhode Island.

Keep up the good work.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

There’s a lot of energy in waves. Every sailor knows it. The photo above is of 2003 Laser World Champion Gustavo Lima catching a ride downwind on a typical wave during last year’s Caribbean Laser Midwinter Championship in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. Can’t you just feel the rush of adrenaline as he takes off down the wave? Mmmmmm. Don’t you wish that was you? It could be. 21 days from today I’m going to be riding that wave (or one very much like it) in Cabarete. Come join me.

But what about all that energy in waves? With all the recent news about climate change and greenhouse gases and the need to start using more renewable energy sources, isn’t it about time we started using some of that energy in waves to warm our homes and cook our turkeys and light our Xmas trees this holiday season?

It sure is. So I was especially pleased to read that my recently adopted state, Rhode Island, is planning to to develop two wave-energy facilities off the coasts of Point Judith and Block Island that would convert energy from the waves into electricity. Rhode Island is partnering with an Australian company, Oceanlinx, to develop the facilities. Here’s a picture of what they will look like.

I’ve no idea whether this project is actually going to happen. Clearly there are all sorts of political, legislative, financial and technical obstacles to overcome. I’m sure some local water users are going to come up with all sorts of objections why the facilities shouldn’t be built in their backyards. And even if these generators are built, who knows if the power they generate will be economic? And why on earth are we using an Australian company? Aren’t there American companies who know how to do this stuff?

But I am kind of proud of my little ocean state for leading the way on this issue. As the rest of the world loses patience with the failure of the Bush administration to take the perils of climate change seriously it’s good to know that at least one state government, led by our governor Donald Carcieri, is trying to address the issue.

Ride the wave, Don dude.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Last summer, after moving to Rhode Island, I enjoyed sailing my Laser at various locations around Narragansett Bay. There were a number of regattas, and then on other days I just went sailing on my own exploring some of the bays and inlets, nooks and crannies of this fascinating area. Tillerwoman and I have also explored from the land side almost every legal access to the shoreline of Mount Hope Bay, the north-eastern arm of Narragansett Bay and the part closest to our home.

Not once did we see a camel.

I was therefore shocked to read that a 2005 survey of the bay discovered the remains of over 100 camels littering the Narragansett Bay shoreline. Whaaaat? How did that happen? Where did they come from?

The survey I mentioned was carried out by two Rhode Island mariners, Captain Alan Wentworth and Captain Ed Hughes. They found hundreds of tons of debris on the bay’s shoreline, including the camels, and drafted a report documenting the types of trash and its locations.

The two captains took their survey report to anyone that would listen and as a result, ridding the bay of debris has become a priority to local, state and federal agencies and officials, and has also led to a major public, private and volunteer effort to clean up the bay.

Starting in August 2006 the first phase of this initiative has removed over 1,000 tons of debris from Narragansett Bay and its shoreline, but the program is far from complete and it will continue next year.

But what about those camels?

Well, apparently they don’t look like this…

They look like this…

Well, I learn something new every day.

Apparently the good captains found over 100 of these heavy wooden objects, weighing over a ton each and soaked in cresol, on the shores of the bay. There was a suspicion that they might have been used by the US Navy as floats for anti-submarine nets but most of the camels only had nails where identification plaques had once been. So it was tough to find someone to take responsibility for their costly removal.

However, in 2006 the bay clean-up crew found a plate on one of the camels clearly identifying its naval origin and the US Navy quickly took responsibility for removing the camels.

So the story has a happy ending.

But to all of my readers please do your part to keep the bay clean. In future, please take care of your camels and make sure they don’t escape when you’re not looking. And if you have any camels you no longer need, please please please don’t leave them in my bay.

Related links

What about those camels?
Locations of the camels and other debris
News of the status of the bay clean-up initiative
Clean The Bay.org

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Dear Neighbors,

I’m sure you agree that we live in a beautiful corner of the world and I hope that you enjoy as much as I do the natural environment of our community, the wild hillside running down…

more >>

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Mount Hope Bay is my bay. I don’t mean that I actually own the whole freaking bay, of course. But it’s the water I see when I wake up in the morning and look out of the bedroom window, it’s the bay I see while I sit here typing away at my keyboard, it’s the foreground for the spectacular sunsets I enjoy sitting on the deck with Tillerwoman sipping a cocktail or three, and it’s that body of water once referred to by my granddaughter as “Grandad’s Pool”. Yes, Mount Hope Bay is my bay.

For the geographically challenged, Mount Hope Bay is the north-eastern arm of Narragansett Bay, bounded by the towns of Bristol and Warren on the west, Tiverton and Fall River on the east, Somerset and Swansea in the north, and the northernmost tip of Aquidneck Island in the south. It’s a relatively quiet corner of Rhode Island waters. The busiest time is Wednesday evenings when Tiverton Yacht Club hold some races in Mount Hope Bay. At other times we see a few recreational boaters, the occasional commercial fishing boat, and a few times a week a freighter, usually I assume carrying coal to the Brayton Point power station at the head of the bay.

I don’t often sail my Laser on Mount Hope Bay. The most convenient launching sites (especially for a solo sailor) around here are actually into other nearby parts of the Narragansett Bay system. Which is a shame. Because Mount Hope Bay is my bay. However, on a Wednesday afternoon a couple of week ago I did launch my Laser at high tide from Independence Park in Bristol, sail out of Bristol Harbor, past Hog Island, under Mount Hope Bridge, at one time the longest suspension bridge in New England (didn’t know that did you?), and into my bay.

I sailed the three or four miles from the bridge over to the water in front of our house. If I squinted I could just see a dot on the deck that might have been Tillerwoman. Later I discovered that she had been taking some photos of the crazy Laser sailor of Mount Hope Bay. I look like a white dot in the photos. Some of the best one have all of seven pixels representing my Laser. Distances can be deceptive.

And then I sailed upwind back through the bridge and to where I had launched. Sailing back is always good. Beats the alternative.

My bay has been in the news this week. There has been a proposal bouncing around for some time from an outfit known as Weaver’s Cove to build a terminal for Liquefied Natural Gas tankers in Fall River which would involve supertankers traversing my bay to reach the terminal. There was much local opposition to the idea, and this particular scheme was eventually killed when the US Coast Guard announced that they didn’t believe LNG tankers could safely navigate the constricted waterways and bridges in the town of Fall River.

So then those clever LNG chappies came up with a new scheme. Build an offshore berth and floating natural gas terminal for the tankers in Mount Hope Bay and have an underwater pipeline from the offshore berth up the Taunton River into the re-gasification plant at the northern end of Fall River. Suck on that one US Coast Guard.

There have been some meetings this week to allow “input” from the public on this clever idea. Of course all the local politicians and environmentalists are against it. As one of our local state representative said, “What angers me, what incenses me … is that these people have the audacity to construct this facility in our bay. Mount Hope Bay belongs to the people, not Weaver’s Cove.” Hmmm. It belongs to us does it? Maybe it really is my bay.

Anyway I haven’t made up my mind yet how I feel about this issue.

The concerns of the environmentalists no doubt have some validity but they are often stated in somewhat hysterical terms. One of the scariest prospects raised is that LNG tankers and terminals are a target for terrorist attacks and that if one ever did blow up it would incinerate every living being within a mile radius. Interestingly the proposed offshore berth is a mile offshore. Hmmm.

On the other hand we do need fuel for our power stations. Apparently most of the power stations around here use natural gas, and of course demand is rising. If we don’t use gas then what? Shall we build a nuclear power station on my bay instead? And I don’t want to be a knee-jerk NIMBay (Not In My Bay). The power stations to generate the electricity for all of those electric cars that John McCain wants have to be built somewhere and the fuel for them has to be shipped in somehow. Who am I to say that they can’t use my bay?

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

TOWN COUNCIL RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the Department of Environmental Management, with cities and towns in Rhode Island, will place large amounts of toxic poisons into catch drains and, sewers in the hope of killing mosquitoes; and

WHEREAS, this same toxic poison, as it finds its way into the bay, has the same deadly effect, upon the larvae of lobsters; and

WHEREAS, one of Little Compton’s leading industries is the harvesting of lobsters from the harbor, bay and sound, and this discharge of toxic poisons will have an adverse effect on this industry; and

WHEREAS, Little Compton is the end destination of tourists enjoying the historic sights, our beaches but also the fine lobster entrees offered by Little Compton restaurants.

Now Therefore Be It RESOLVED: that the Town of Little Compton intentionally refrains from the use of any methoprene and any other toxic poisons that present the same risk as methoprene in the mosquito abatement program and look to other less invasive methods of mosquito control.

Adopted by the Little Compton Town Council on April 10, 2008.

Are pesticides killing Rhode Island lobsters?

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Save the fish. Eat more clams.

That’s one of the messages in this fascinating article on How to eat seafood sustainably. The advice includes…

• Eat less of the big fish such as salmon, tuna, swordfish and sharks, which are the most vulnerable populations.

• Eat lower on the marine food chain, including smaller species that are less endangered such as clams, oysters, mollusks, anchovies, and sardines.
• Choose fish caught by line, pot, or net (or other artisanal methods) and avoid fish caught in massive trawl nets which pull everything out of the ocean whether it is the intended catch or not.

That’s if you don’t want your grandchildren to be telling their grandchildren in fifty years time, “Yes dear, that’s a picture of a fish. Fish were animals that used to live in the sea.”

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

One of my favorite meals on my occasional jaunt from New Jersey to sail somewhere on the Chesapeake was soft shell crabs. They are blue crabs caught just after molting (before the new shell has had time to harden) and are cooked after cutting out the gills, face and guts, and eaten whole. They are usually battered and fried, and can be eaten as a main course or in a sandwich.

Now we live in Rhode Island it’s unlikely I will be traveling very often to regattas in Maryland, home of the best soft-shell crabs in the country. But wait.

According to this article at Science Daily, “A detailed analysis of data from nearly 50 years of weekly fish-trawl surveys in Narragansett Bay and adjacent Rhode Island Sound has revealed a long-term shift in species composition, which scientists attribute primarily to the effects of global warming.”

The study’s overall prediction is that, “Narragansett Bay is soon going to resemble estuaries to the south of us — Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay — so we’ll experience what they are experiencing now. It will continue to get warmer and attract more southern species, such as blue crabs. Species that couldn’t complete their life cycle here before may be able to do that now.”

Wooooo hoooo. So one day Rhode Island will be like Maryland. And soft shell crabs will be the Rhode Island crustacean of choice. Who said global warming was a bad thing?

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

I wrote last week about the mysterious Isle of Spar.

It comes. It goes.

I see it every day from my window, but Blaskowitz never believed in it and omitted it from his famous chart.

Wikipedia says it’s in Massachusetts last time they looked. NOAA disagrees. They definitely saw it in Rhode Island.

Wikipedia “says it’s only visible at extreme low tide”. Hmmm. My eye doctor says the vision in my left eye can only be corrected to 20/40 vision but I see it at every state of the tide except the the highest of the high. Even with my left eye.

It’s there. No it’s here. Now I see it. Now you don’t. Weird.

But yesterday there was a protest on Spar Island. I wrote a few weeks ago about the proposal to build an offshore terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers in My Bay. The as yet imaginary terminal would be close to the perhaps mythical Spar Island.

So yesterday the opponents of the LNG terminal led by the Coalition for Responsible Siting of LNG Facilities organized a protest on the bay. More than 100 sailors, power boaters, kayakers and other activists made a several-mile cruise up the bay to protest plans to build the LNG unloading terminal. One of the leaders of the protest, Joseph Carvalho, landed on the famed Isle of Spar and actually gave a press conference there.

His reaction on his first visit to the mysterious mid-bay maybe island: “It was a wild and scenic view. It was gorgeous. I soaked it in. It’s truly amazing.”

Sure is dude.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back