Coastal Management Issues of Great Bay, New Hampshire
Kim-Laura Boyle
Fall 2001
BIO 587
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The modest coastline of the State of New Hampshire is a small part of a coastal basin which only
begins to tell the story of the state’s abundant marine resources. New Hamphire’s ocean coastline
encompasses eighteen miles along the Atlantic Ocean situated on the Gulf of Maine (NHCP, 2000). Of
this eighteen miles, seventy-five percent is publicly owned and accessible for public recreation. Fiftyseven percent of the shoreline is beachfront on the Atlantic Ocean and less than 0.1%, less than 1/10 th of a
mile, of that ocean front is publicly owned (Graber, 1987). Luckily, significant beach erosion only occurs
in a few areas along the coast and the beaches that do experience it are periodically renourished in
conjunction with the dredging of the Hampton Harbor channel during regular maintenance (Graber,
1987). Bays and inlets extend the coastline far inland, and the state has a total of one-hundred and fiftyfour miles of estuarine shoreline in addition to the relatively small oceanic coast (Landry and Livingston,
2000). The estuarine resources include the Great Bay Estuary and seven associated tidal rivers, Hampton
Harbor and Rye Harbor. The coastal basin watershed is comprised of seventeen towns and has an
population density of approximately three-hundred residents per square mile (Landry and Livingston,
2000). (See Fig.1.)
The ocean and harbor segments of the New Hampshire coastal zone include all lands along the
Atlantic shoreline from the Portsmouth/Newington town line on the north to Seabrook on the south which
is home to the controversial Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. The coastal zone extends landward one
thousand feet, or to the limit of the Wetlands Board jurisdiction, whichever is furthest inland and seaward
a distance of three geographical miles as a result of the Submerged Land Act of 1953. In 1975 the state
tried to get jurisdiction to extend the coastal zone seaward to the border of U.S. waters but was denied by
the U.S. Supreme Court (Graber, 1987). New Hampshire’s coastal zone is comprised of sandy beaches,
sand dunes, rocky shorelines, estuaries, tidepools, and salt marshes (NHCP, 1998).
Management of the coastal zone is carried out by the New Hampshire Coastal Program (NHCP)
which is administered by the Office of State Planning (NHCP, 2000). New Hampshire was one of the last
states to gain U.S. approval for its coastal management plan and the NHCP wasn’t established until 1982,
ten years after the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (Landry and Livingston, 2000). The NHCP is
the lead agency in organizing policy and planning with the coastal communities as well as state and
federal agencies. Some of these agencies include the Water Division of the Department of Environmental
Services which the NHCP provides partial funding to for their permitting and enforcement activities; the
New Hampshire Estuaries Project and EPA to promote the protection and enhancement of estuarine
resources; the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment to protect and conserve the ecological
balance of coastal and marine habitats; and the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve which
links education, research, and resource protection of the Great Bay Estuary (NHCP, 2000).
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The Great Bay Estuary is a prominent feature of the New Hampshire coastal basin. Often
referred to as “New Hampshire’s hidden coastline” the estuary lies on the New Hampshire and Maine
boarder and extends southward into New Hampshire where it is bordered by ten of the sixteen coastal
towns (Short, 1992). The region surrounding the Great Bay is included in the Seaboard Lowland section
of the New England province and was formed when crustal depression from glacial weight occurred as
the last glacier moved through the region during the Wisconsin era of the Pleistocene epoch (Great Bay,
2001). The depression was on the order of forty feet and when the glacier melted, crustal rebound
occurred. However, the uplift was not uniform and the Great Bay represents and remaining low area that
was filled by rising sea level from the glacial melting and is thus considered a drowned-river valley
(NERRS, 1989). The estuary is a tidally dominated system and derives its freshwater from seven major
rivers. Three of the rivers, the Winnicut, the Swampscott, and the Lamprey, drain directly into Great Bay
while the remainder drain into the estuary at a more northern point (Great Bay, 2001). The ocean water
comes directly from the Gulf of Maine and the ocean and river waters mix fifteen miles inland from the
Atlantic Ocean making Great Bay one of the most recessed estuaries in the nation (Great Bay, 2001). (See
Fig. 2)
The Great Bay estuary has been used by people for a long time beginning with native cultures
that inhabited the area as early as 650 AD. More recently, American Indians of the Abenaki tribes
occupied the area during European colonization in the early 1600’s and in 1650 the early European
settlers inhabited the Great Bay. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s the Great Bay was the site of a summer
resort, a shipyard, and was at some point during this era covered in several inches of sawdust from dozens
of saw mills that dotted the bay’s shores. Grist mills and tanneries on the river contributed to chemical
pollution of the estuary until the mid 1900’s and in 1973, when Aristotle Onassis proposed building the
Olympic Oil Refinery in the town of Durham along the shore of the Great Bay, local citizens defeated the
proposal by a nine to one margin showing their concern for the protection of the area (Great Bay, 2001).
Currently, the water-dependent uses of the estuary consist of limited commercial and recreational fishing
including some lobstering as well as taking of rainbow smelt, river herring, and American eel; shell
fishing such as clamming and oystering; bird hunting and watching and boating. Intensive boating occurs
mainly in the upper area of the estuary as the mudflats and low channels during low tide can cause
problems.
The shoreline around Great Bay is predominantly a mixture of residential property,
agricultural land, and woodlands.
Local land use controls place certain restrictions on shoreline
development and many landowners, despite subdivision pressures from developers, have retained large
parcels of land, 50-100 acres or more, because they are committed to preserving the open character of the
area (NERRS, 1989). However, this is changing and shoreline development is becoming a concern.
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Since the early 1940’s the Great Bay area has been a management issue for the State of New
Hampshire. In 1941 the New Hampshire Legislature adopted a joint resolution to make a long range plan
for the development of the Great Bay and in 1943 and 1945 two reports came out as a result of the
legislation which contained recommendations for future development of the area.
The plan was
comprehensive and covered suggestions for recreational, residential, commercial and industrial
development including the damming of three rivers in the estuarine system. The 1945 plan was never
carried out although some components of it have carried through to present times (NERRS, 1989). In the
1960’s there was renewed interest in a development plan for Great Bay and again the state legislature
passed two bills pertaining to the development of a management plan and although the Army Corps of
Engineers began to study navigational needs of the estuary, there was no significant action towards
coordinated planning or management. Both the 1940’s and 1960’s plans were focused on recreational
potential of Great Bay which at the time was referred to as “the greatest underdeveloped recreational
resource in all of New England” (NERRS, 1989).
In the 1970’s the State of New Hampshire again tried to develop a plan for the Great Bay, this
time with an emphasis not on recreation but on resource management. The National Coastal Zone
Management Program in the early 70’s jump-started New Hampshire into developing a plan to manage all
of the state’s coastal resources, oceanic and estuarine and in 1982 the state began exploring the possibility
of including the Great Bay as part of the National Estuarine Reserve Research System, a cooperative state
and federal program to promote estuarine research, education and management via designated sites
around the country (NERRS, 1989). In 1989, the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
(GBNERR), a program of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHF&G) and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was established (NHCP, 2000). This program set
aside 5, 280 acres, including 4, 471 acres of tidal waters and mudflats and approximately 48 miles of
shoreline and links education, research and resource protection to promote the informed management of
the estuarine habitat in Great Bay (Great Bay, 2001). (See Fig. 3)
The Great Bay Reserve is comprised of upland forest, salt marsh, mudflats, tidal creeks, rocky
intertidal zones, eelgrass beds, channel bottom/sub tidal areas, and upland field habitats (http:, 2001).
Many plants and animal species can be found at the reserve including some that are listed as endangered
or rare species. Salt marshes in Great Bay are dominated by Spartina alterniflora and S. patens. Eelgrass
beds as well as salt marsh asters are also found throughout the reserve. The region is characterized as a
transition zone between the deciduous forest to the south and the coniferous forest to the north and
common trees in the area include white pine, red oak, and red maple while lesser numbers of black gum
and sweet pepper bush are seen (Great Bay, 2001). Animal species found in the Great Bay Reserve
include invertebrates, thirty-two species of finfish, two-hundred and eighty one different species of birds,
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both terrestrial and marine mammals (Great Bay, 2001). Both endangered plant and animal species, as
well as species rare in other areas of New Hampshire can be found in the reserve including osprey, fourtoed salamanders, hog-nosed snakes, stout bulrush, marsh elder, and dwarf glasswort (Great Bay, 2001).
The GBNERR has five main management issues that it recently has been investigating. One of
the concerns is microbial pollution and shellfish closures. The Great Bay Estuary has abundant shellfish
resources which are used only for recreational purposes. Commercial shell fishing is not allowed but
recently sewage contamination has closed clam and oyster beds to the recreational fishermen as well. In
1985, 71% of classified shellfish waters in the Great Bay Estuary were closed to shell fishing (Short,
1992). A large portion of the contamination problem within Great Bay may be originating from sewage
treatment plants discharging improperly treated effluent into the estuary.
The Jackson Estuarine
Laboratory of the University of New Hampshire is beginning to look at the fates of contaminants that
enter the Great Bay as well as ways to remove them (Short, 1992). The second management issue that the
GBNERR must deal with is the decline of eelgrass habitat. In the 1980’s the distribution of eelgrass in
the estuary experienced a serious decline as a result of wasting disease which is exacerbated by the third
issue, water clarity problems resulting from nutrient loading and sedimentation within the estuary (Short,
1992). Nutrient loading from both nonpoint and point sources surely contributed to the decline of
eelgrass beds. Currently, the GBNERR and it’s research partners have had some success with the
restoration of eelgrass beds from direct transplanting (EPA, 2001). Another problem for the GBNERR to
address is shoreline development. Rapid shoreline development is a major problem within estuarine areas
throughout New England and the major concern for Great Bay is what degree of development should be
allowed and what amount of shoreline should be protected in order to preserve the character of the
estuarine environment. The last immediate concern for the Great Bay Estuary is the investigation of
hazardous waste and contaminants which are entering the estuarine waters at the former Pease Air Force
Base, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the Watts FluidAir site (Short, 1992).
The GBNERR has made some strides in addressing these major management issues. In recent
years 40 acres of shell fishing beds have been reopened, 1500 acres of waterfront habitat have been
protected by ownership or conservation easements, ten million dollars has been raised towards additional
land protection and over 100 acres of salt marsh and eelgrass have been restored. Long term goals
include tripling the acreage of open shellfish beds and preserving 3000 acres in the Great Bay watershed
area (EPA, 2001). With a revamping of policies and updated conservation management plans to address
shoreline development, as well as the continued success of eelgrass transplantation and continued funding
there is no reason why the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve shouldn’t be able to continue
to succeed in maintaining and improving the estuarine environment of
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the Great Bay.
LITERATURE CITED
EPA, 2001. Great Bay and Seacoast Fact Sheet. February.
Graber, P. 1987. The Law of the Coast in a Clamshell, Part XIII: The New Hampshire Approach. Shore
and Beach. Jan. Pgs. 12-17.
Great Bay, 2001. http://inlet.geol.sc.edu/GRB
Landry, N. and Robert Livingston. 2000. Elimination of Illicit Connections in Coastal New Hampshire
Spurs Cooperation and Controversy. National Conference on Tools for Urban Water Resource
Management and Protection Proceedings. EPA/625/R-00/001. Pgs 110-116
National Estuarine Reserve Research System. 1989. Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
Management Plan.
New Hampshire Coastal Program Pamphlet. 2000. Office of State Planning, Concord, NH.
New Hampshire Coastal Program Coastal Access Map. 1998. Office of State Planning. Concord, NH.
Short, F.T. 1992. (ed.) The Ecology of the Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire and Maine: An Estuarine
Profile and Bibliography. NOAA-Coastal Ocean Program Publ. 222 pp.
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FIG 1. New Hampshire Coastal Communities, (NHCP, 2000)
FIG 2. Location of Great Bay, (NERRS, 1989)
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FIG 3. Great Bay Estuary, (Short, 1992)
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