News and Events at MSRC

Oct. 20, 2005

Invited Testimony Before the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation and Assembly Subcommittee on Shoreline Protection

David O. Conover, Dean and Director
Marine Sciences Research Center
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-5000

Chairman DiNapoli, Chairman Cymbrowitz, and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the health and future of the New York ocean environment. My name is David Conover. I am the Dean and Director of the Marine Sciences Research Center (MSRC) at Stony Brook University, the State University of New York’s only research organization dedicated to marine and atmospheric sciences and the only academic institution in New York with the authority to award Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in marine science. My research specialty is in fisheries science and fish biology. The views expressed herein include input from numerous MSRC faculty who are scientific experts on a variety of topics that bear upon the subject of today’s hearing.

Although appearing to represent only a tiny fraction of the east coastline of the U.S., the State of New York contains an abundance of shoreline and marine bottomlands that is of tremendous esthetic and economic value. In fact, most people are surprised to learn that New York has 1,850 miles of tidal shoreline, more than that of seven other east coast states including Massachusetts and New Jersey. Such a lengthy tidal shoreline stems from the many large islands that are part of New York, including the perimeters of Long Island, Fire Island, Fishers Island, Gardiners Island, Shelter Island, Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Coney Island and includes tidal banks of the Hudson River. Along New York’s shoreline there exist at least five distinct marine ecosystems including the Long Island Sound, Peconic Bay, the four south shore bays, the Hudson River estuary, and the waters of the continental shelf. Each of these ecosystems supports habitat for a wealth of living resource species that are of direct economic value, provide ecosystem services such as clean air and water, and represent recreational and leisure opportunities for the public.

Located in this coastal region is a population of some 20 million people spanning the tri-state area. Over 90% of New York’s population lives in the coastal zone. Projections are that Nassau and Suffolk counties, with a population of over three million, will be completely built out by 2010-2015. No other region of the country has such a large population density living in the coastal zone.

The marine district of New York is valuable for diverse reasons that include quality of life and economic prosperity. Such factors are what attract people to a coastal lifestyle. But the pressures of population growth are affecting our marine environment in ways that lead to reduced biodiversity, fishery collapses, degraded habitats, poor water quality and numerous conflicts among alternative uses.

On a broader scale, there is no longer any scientific doubt that unprecedented changes in global climate are underway. Effects of warming are already evident and these will have extremely important local impacts that can be and must be anticipated.

Taking its cue from the U.S. Ocean Commission and Pew Commission reports at the national level, we believe it is time for New York to undertake a similar comprehensive analysis of its marine resources. Rather than react to each proposed development or each environmental crisis as independent events, we urge New York to begin to imagine possible futures. If we could imagine the coastal zone of New York 10, 20 or 50 years from now, what would be our vision? Full restoration of shellfish populations? Zero discharge of sewage? Alternative uses for solid waste? Full implementation of renewable energy? And what are the major threats to the coastal zone? Are we prepared for sea level rise and more intense coastal storms?

It is in this spirit of imagining the future that we provide the viewpoints that follow. They are grouped into three major themes: climate change, living resources, and marine zoning.

Climate change and its impact on coastal zones of New York

There is increasing scientific evidence that global climate change is underway and will continue into the future. More importantly for New York, however, is the realization that there will be very significant regional climate changes that are specific to particular areas. These regional changes may involve the duration, intensity, and frequency of winter storms, hurricanes, flooding, droughts, and heat waves. Such changes were probably not considered when the existing infrastructure of human services such as energy, transportation, and health care was established. This year’s very active hurricane season and the power of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast may well be related to global climate change, although this is still being debated.

The coastal regions of New York, particularly Long Island, are near the transition zone where the warm seawater from the Gulf Stream meets the cold water from the North Atlantic. As a result, they are particularly susceptible to impacts of climate changes. For example, unusually warm conditions in the summer of 1999 contributed to mass mortality of lobsters in Long Island Sound. Besides direct impact on living marine resources, a warmer climate can lead to more direct hits of strong hurricanes, since hurricane paths and intensities are strongly modulated by the underlying sea surface temperatures. Flooding and damage caused by the hurricanes of the future would be exacerbated by sea level rise that is already underway and will accelerate in a global warming scenario.

As one example, much of the New York City metropolitan region is less than five meters above mean sea level, with about 260 square kilometers at risk from storm surge flooding by a 100-year flood event for both tropical systems and nor’easter cyclones. In fact, if a category 3 hurricane hit New York City, it is estimated that nearly 30% of the south side of Manhattan would be flooded. To make matters worse, sea level has been rising at about 0.3 meters per century in this area; therefore, inundation from a 100-year flood may effectively become a 30-year flood by the end of the century. This is a conservative estimate since global warming is expected to increase the rate at which sea level will continue to rise to perhaps a total of 0.50-0.75 m per century. As a result, this rise may effectively turn a 100-year flood into a 40-year flood by the 2020s. It is not a question of whether a storm will induce major flooding in New York, but when, and therefore more research and planning are needed.

In addition to global climate change, societal activities around New York City are also impacting regional climate through urbanization, land use, construction, and pollution. Evidence exists, for example, that changes in certain climate variables in New York City differ greatly from those on Long Island, indicating strong direct effects of humans on local climate change.

At the present time, there has been very little research focusing on potential regional climate changes that are specific to New York. Yet it is these regional climate changes that directly impact living standards, economic activities, energy consumption, insurance, transportation, resource management, and public policy in New York State and elsewhere. There has been little if any state investment in research to understand the implications of global climate change within New York’s coastal regions over the next fifty years. This issue needs much greater attention.

Because of the potentially huge consequences of climate change for regional economies and human safety, we also need to explore potential mitigation strategies to prepare for extreme climate and weather events that may occur in the next 50 years. For example, engineering technology exists to mitigate the storm surge flooding of New York City through the construction of barriers. The state needs to play an active role in exploring possible solutions. With more people and greater wealth becoming concentrated in coastal communities, the risks to life and property due to flooding and storm damages are accelerating. Planning and management agencies should formulate policies that account for these trends so that economic losses in the state can be minimized.

Living resources

In many respects the recently released U.S. Ocean Commission and Pew Foundation Reports paint a rather bleak picture of the health of our nation’s living marine resources. Over-harvested species, fishery closures, oxygen-depleted dead zones, and harmful algal blooms are but a few of the symptoms that plague our estuaries and oceans. The causes are over-fishing, habitat loss, excessive inputs of nutrients and other pollutants, global warming, excessive development in the coastal zone, and other insults. Yet the most important message from these reports is not one of “doom and gloom” but that it’s not too late to cure most of these problems if we proactively respond soon to the challenge. The prescription includes a stronger governance framework, reforms in fisheries management, an ecosystem approach to policy and management, better monitoring of the environment through creation of ocean observation and data management systems, doubling of investment in research, and improved public education.

It would be wise to pay heed to these reports and recommendations and determine how they apply to New York. For example, the harvest of seafood from New York waters has been dwindling consistently over the past 50 years. Total weight of seafood landed in New York State is only 25% of the level 50 years ago. Shellfish have been especially hard hit. The once highly prominent Long Island oyster industry is almost commercially extinct. Hard clams in Great South Bay – once the most productive clamming area on the east coast – have collapsed to only 1-2% of landings in 1975. Even where shellfish populations remain reasonably abundant (e.g., clams in Raritan Bay or lobsters in Long Island Sound) diseases now plague our fisheries. Though a contributing cause, the reasons go beyond mere over-fishing. Harmful algal blooms like brown tide wreak havoc for many marine plants and animals, indicating an ecosystem out of balance. The Bluepoints Oyster Company, which owned and actively managed acres of bay bottom, went out of business because clams no longer grow productively in Great South Bay. Increasing temperatures in Long Island Sound are contributing to declines in cold-water species like lobsters and winter flounder, and the alarming rate of salt marsh loss, especially in Jamaica Bay, stems in part from sea level rise.

While these trends are of serious concern, it is also true that New York has experienced some important successes in restoring marine ecosystems. Due in large part to the passage of the Clean Water Act, enormous clean-up efforts involving massive reduction in and/or treatment of disposed waste materials have been invested in the Hudson River and the New York Harbor. As a result, these waterways have shown dramatic improvements in water clarity, reduced hypoxia, increased fish and bird abundances, and much greater recreational use by people. Stringent catch restrictions for several depleted fisheries – imposed in conjunction with other states as part of a coast-wide management plan – have allowed some finfishes like striped bass and summer flounder to recover from the brink of collapse. These successes demonstrate that concerted action can lead to species and ecosystem recovery.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the state’s shellfisheries. Nearly all of New York’s major shellfisheries have collapsed with little sign of recovery. These include lobsters in Long Island Sound, bay scallops in the Peconic Bays, hard clams in the Great South Bay, and oysters throughout the marine district of New York. There is a simple reason for this contrast between the status of finfish and shellfish species. Most finfishes are highly migratory and spend much of the year outside New York in the relatively clean waters of the continental shelf. If local conditions deteriorate, they can swim away. The shellfishes that have declined live in shallow, coastal, semi-enclosed bays and they feed by filtering microscopic food from the water column. Hence they are especially sensitive to changes in local water quality. Most shellfish cannot simply swim away when low oxygen (hypoxia) events or harmful algae blooms occur. Yet because these same species live their entire lives within state waters, New York has the power to take unilateral action to restore them.

New York needs to become proactive in restoring its lost legacy of harvest from the sea. We applaud the efforts of the Nature Conservancy to restore hard clams to Great South Bay and of Suffolk County to restore scallops in the Peconic Bays. These are good beginnings, but we should not expect overnight success. Restoration requires a long-term investment in research, implementation, and evaluation so that recovery plans can become adaptive as we learn what works and what doesn’t.

In tune with the U.S. Oceans Report, New York should continue to place great emphasis on ecosystem-based management of its bays and estuaries. Attempts to weaken the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act at the federal level should be resisted by New York State. Similarly, New York should oppose proposed federal legislation that would weaken our ability to manage and restore fisheries as specified in the Magnuson-Stevens Act and reduce the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act.

Marine zoning: planning for conflicting uses of a limited resource

The need for regional planning and management is well accepted for our terrestrial environment, and so it must be for our marine environment. In order to reduce the contentiousness that frequently arises over proposed uses of our coastal waters, to optimize use of the marine environment, and to protect and conserve marine resources, it is time to seriously consider implementing marine zoning. To be truly effective, marine zoning in our region should be a cooperative tri-state endeavor, but New York should take the lead. There have been too many contentious debates in recent years concerning a variety of proposed uses of our coastal waters. Unfortunately, decisions have often been based on emotion rather than on sound science and policy. The controversies over wind farms, liquid natural gas terminals, dredge spoil disposal and power cable locations are prime examples.

There are 20 million people living in the tri-state region. This population pressure impinges on our marine environment and leads to in environmental degradation and user conflicts. We must recognize that we have reached the point where damage to the marine environment and conflicts over its use must be reduced. Marine zoning is needed in order to rationally manage the many marine resources, marine activities, and values that we prize.

We use the marine environment for fishing, manufacturing, recreation, transportation, power generation and distribution, military activities, marine reserves, and waste disposal. Thirty one percent of the gross national product of the U.S. was provided by coastal counties in the mid-1990s (U.S. EPA. 2004. National Coastal Assessment Report II, Office of Research and Development/Office of Water. Washington, DC. 286 pp.). The coastline buffers the power of the sea, shelters and nourishes vulnerable marine organisms, and provides a recreational outlet for millions of people every year. Many past marine conservation efforts that have focused on a single species or protection of small areas have not been successful. However, marine zoning manages the system as an integrated whole, providing a buffer against management uncertainties and creating a framework to help balance and mitigate different uses within marine environments. Only through marine zoning will we ever be able to fully implement ecosystem-based management.

Freedom of the seas and laissez-faire have been the guiding doctrines concerning use of our coastal waters. Unfortunately, using these doctrines as justification for marine environmental policy and management in the tri-state region are no longer tenable.

Marine zoning is essential for maintaining:

fishery resources;
the right to fish;
recreational and aesthetic values of coastal resources;
significant cultural, historical, and natural areas.

The issue of significant historical zones is a good example. Extremely fine-scale, acoustic mapping of the Hudson River has revealed the existence of a large number (probably more than 300) shipwrecks on the river bottom. These shipwrecks are relics of the historical importance of the Hudson River for transportation in both pre-historical and historical times. We can expect to find many, more such features as detailed mapping continues in the Long Island Sound, Peconic Bays, coastal Atlantic and Great Lake waters. Protection of these historical features requires a re-evaluation of New York laws. There are some protections in place, but New York's laws are weak when compared to those of other states. Without proper safeguards, newly discovered shipwrecks will be plundered, thus compromising their archeological value.

At the same time, we must recognize that there are commercial enterprises that must take place and that the marine environment, in some cases, is the most environmentally acceptable or economically feasible setting. For example, until we eliminate the use of water as the transportation system for sewage, the marine environment will serve as the receiving system for sewage effluent – albeit a cleaner effluent than we discharge today.

Marine transportation may again reach the prominence that it once had, driven by the high cost, unavailability, and pollution effects of fossil fuels. We can anticipate the need for shipping lanes – some requiring dredging, marine transportation terminals, and offshore platforms. Dredge material sites undoubtedly will be required but we cannot afford to have long drawn-out debates about location and timing with each required maintenance dredging activity.

Power generation and associated delivery systems will be required as population increases and needs expand. Offshore wind farms, liquid natural gas terminals, electrical cables and other installations need to be located where they can operate efficiently, but must also minimize negative environmental impacts as well as conflicts with other uses of the marine environment.

Marine buffers may be required to protect living marine resources and coastal population from exposure to a variety of deleterious atmospheric or water-borne chemicals. Buffers may also be required as part of military and homeland security preparedness. And some areas assuredly must be protected to be forever wild.

It is clear that we are now wasting considerable energy and resources on a complex, confusing and inequitable decision-making process that is not serving any of our interests very well. Marine zoning can help fix the process. However, marine zoning will be much more complex than that of terrestrial zoning because of the dynamics of the environment. Fluids don’t recognize mapped boundaries and the living resources of the marine environment can’t be fenced. So to effectively implement zoning in the marine environment will require our best marine scientific expertise, along with the expertise of the fishing, environmental, regional planning, commercial, and political communities.

Most importantly, marine zoning will require considerable political will power. The marine environment is public resource and until now we have allowed unrestricted public access. But we are now realizing the tragedy of the commons. We must develop a rational plan for allocating conflicting uses across a limited resource.

Recommendations

New York State should:

taking a cue from the federal report, create its own ocean commission to evaluate the status of our marine environment and to create strategic plans for restoration and protection of its resources.

join forces with its neighboring states to invest in an Ocean Observation System for the New York Bight, Hudson River, and Long Island Sound. Such systems deploy a variety of environmental sensors capable of providing real time information on physical factors such as waves, tides, currents, and temperatures; chemical factors like oxygen, nitrogen, and pollutants; and biotic factors like algal blooms and fish densities. Similar observation systems are being proposed and implemented in other U.S. coastal waters, and around the world. These observation systems protect human lives, represent important aids to navigation, and are a vital component of ecosystem-based management. Stony Brook, Columbia, and Rutgers Universities and the Stevens Institute of N.J. are working together to develop a plan for the New York Bight. The University of Connecticut and Stony Brook are planning to expand on systems operating in Long Island Sound.

invest in research to predict what the impacts of global climate change will mean specifically for New York. Precautionary plans should be developed that anticipate a future with increased frequency and intensity of coastal storms, large scale flooding, damage to coastal property, summer heat waves, and other threats to human safety. Feasibility to mitigate impacts through storm surge barriers and other measures should be evaluated.

evaluate the current status of its living resources as compared with historical abundances. Objective decisions should be made about which resources are restorable and which are not. Shellfish should be a central focus of restoration efforts because most of these species occur entirely within state waters, they have a higher landed value than other living resources, and they provide additional ecosystem services such as water filtration.

apply principals of marine zoning to New York’s marine district, setting aside areas such that conflicting uses are avoided. Such zones might designate areas for industrial, maritime transportation, energy production, fishing, aquaculture, conservation, biodiversity, sewage discharge, recreation, and other uses.

strengthen its Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) so that it can more effectively carry out its mission to manage and protect our marine resources. This may include more funds for enforcement and management activities. To focus more research on New York’s marine environment, a cooperative institute should be established bridging the mission of DEC with the expertise at local universities and including a partnership with the National Marine Fisheries Service of NOAA. Similar institutes have been established in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

develop a mechanism for rapid response to marine environmental crises. About every five years in NY coastal waters, a new crisis emerges (hypoxia in both New York Bight and Long Island Sound, medical wastes (twice), shell burn disease (twice), brown tide, lobster deaths, etc.) The state has no means to adequately respond to these events. By the time money is raised to study them and proposals written, the crisis has passed. We need a mechanism to respond to events immediately--not 6 months to a year later.

I commend your committee for its attention to and interest in New York’s marine resources. MSRC stands ready to assist the state in moving forward with plans to protect, conserve and use wisely the many benefits that the oceans bring to our region and the nation.

Page last modified on Monday, November 7, 2005 by George E. Carroll