Session Title:
Session Leader:
Pollution, Contaminants and Water Quality II
Mo Lynch
Presenter:
Presentation:
Jawed Hameedi
Linking Scientific Information with Coastal Resource Management Decisions
Framework: St. Lucie Estuary, Florida
Jawed.Hameedi@noaa.gov
Email:
Abstract:
There is increasing scientific evidence that estuaries and other aquatic habitats in South Florida are
impacted by pollution, including nutrient overload, toxic chemicals, and uncontrolled freshwater
release from lakes and reservoirs. In the St. Lucie Estuary, the ecosystem responses to freshwater
flow have included reduced acreage of oyster beds, loss of submerged aquatic vegetation,
remobilization of contaminants, unusual algal blooms, and increased prevalence of lesions and
deformities in fish. In addition, the estuary receives large amounts of copper from agricultural and
urban land development and an unknown amount from leaching of paint on boat hulls. Although
baseline measurements and issue-specific studies have been performed for nearly 30 years, a major
impetus for coordinated research and assessment in the St. Lucie Estuary was heavy El Nino related
rainfall in 1998. Results from a coordinated set of research projects have recently been used to
derive conceptual models that encompass ecological information about the estuary and adjacent
upland areas and are intended for use in an adaptive management framework. Environmental
indicators, if used within a broad societal framework, offer an attractive means in these models for
integrating and translating scientific information for use in resource management decision-making.
However, the pace of development and enthusiasm for governance and contextual indicators have
remained slow compared to those for environmental state. Further and most notably in the case of
toxic contaminants, there is little progress due to undefined environmental restoration targets or on
what defines unreasonable degradation of the environment.
Presenter:
Presentation:
Email:
Abstract:
Cory Riley
Integrating Coastal Science and Technology to Support Coastal Management:
The National Estuarine Research Reserve System-Wide Monitoring Program
cory.riley@noaa.gov
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Estuarine Research
Reserve System (NERRS) was established by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972. There are
26 reserves protecting more than one million acres of estuarine waters and adjoining lands across
the continental United States, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. The Coastal Zone Management Act created
reserves to protect estuarine areas, provide education opportunities, promote and conduct estuarine
research and monitoring, and transfer relevant information to coastal managers. In 1995, the NERRS
established a System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) with three ecosystem foci: 1) abiotic water
and weather parameters, 2) biological monitoring including biodiversity and habitat characteristics,
and 3) watershed habitat land use classifications. The SWMP was designed to track short-term
variability and long-term changes in estuarine waters to understand how human activities and natural
events can change ecosystems. Recent SWMP enhancements enable abiotic data collection to occur
in near real-time, and biological monitoring of emergent and submerged aquatic vegetation across
the reserves provides important baselines for habitat change analysis. Reserve monitoring efforts are
integrated with coastal training and education programs to provide timely scientific data to users who
influence coastal resource decisions. Local education, training and management applications of the
SWMP abiotic and biological monitoring data are powerful examples of integrating coastal science
and technology to address coastal management needs. The reserves provide an example of how
systematic monitoring efforts that are well integrated with management needs and end user products
can inform local and national coastal management policy and priorities.
Presenter:
Presentation:
Email:
Abstract:
Leigh Johnson
Integrating Science in Invasive Species and Water Quality Policies
ltjohnson@ucdavis.edu
California and the U.S. EPA are reevaluating antifouling paint registration and water-quality standards
for dissolved copper. Research shows hull-borne aquatic invasive species tolerate copper better than
native species, giving them a competitive edge in harbors polluted by copper. Recent water-quality
regulations require San Diego Bay boat owners to reduce copper discharges from antifouling paints,
and if similar antifouling paint restrictions are adopted elsewhere, nontoxic and less-toxic hull
coatings will become more common. However, such coatings require companion strategies to control
fouling growth, and while the National Aquatic Invasive Species (NAIS) Act of 2005 prescribes
antifouling paints to control AIS, nontoxic hull coatings simply slow fouling growth rather than
preventing it. The NAIS Act discourages in-water hull cleaning, yet frequent cleaning is needed to
manage fouling growth on nontoxic hull coatings. (In San Diego, hauling and cleaning is nine times
more expensive than in-water hull cleaning.) The authors prepared a white paper and policy analysis
to assist decision makers, scientists and stakeholders in developing research, education and
sustainable policies for controlling AIS while reducing antifouling paint pollution.