10/06/2024
We can do better for the Great Bay-Piscataqua Region
Melissa Paly, Guest Columnist
As the Great Bay-Piscataqua Waterkeeper, I have a front-row seat on what’s going on in our rivers, bays and coast. Some of the changes are welcome – residents banding together to be better caretakers of their property, voters approving ballot measures to restore river health, municipalities investing in clean water. But some of the changes are disturbing, and I see them up close.
This summer I helped University of New Hampshire researchers on a third season of experimental efforts to jumpstart the recovery of an underwater plant that is critical to healthy estuaries. When it’s happy, eelgrass forms lush meadows of underwater grass, producing lots of oxygen that other marine life needs to survive. Sadly, I’ve seen areas of Great Bay that were once dense green meadows turn into barren underwater deserts.
Eelgrass is more than just the lungs of the estuary; it creates habitat where young fish can hide and escape predators, many of these fish head out to sea once they’re mature. The roots of eelgrass plants go deep in the sediment and hold it in place so it is not stirred up by storms and strong currents. These grasses also suck up nutrients in the water to grow, helping to keep nitrogen in the water from becoming an unwelcome pollutant.
But as with so many things we cherish in New Hampshire and Maine, climate change is taking a dramatic toll on the health of eelgrass, a toll that has ramifications for the future of the Great Bay and beyond.
Eelgrass is susceptible on several fronts to the damages of climate change. Our waters are warming as fast as any in the world – and these rising temperatures are making it more difficult for eelgrass to thrive. Warmer waters are causing species such as green crabs to proliferate – these voracious invaders shred the grass blades and tear up its roots. At the same time, climate change is causing more frequent and more intense downpours which erode land and send a cascade of pollutants and sediment into the Bay. That runoff clouds the water, blocking the sunlight that eelgrass needs to thrive. It also washes more nitrogen from the land into our rivers and bays, fueling growth of nuisance algae and seaweeds that smother eelgrass and block out even more sunlight.
Eelgrass is crucial to fishery health, water clarity and carbon capture all along the East Coast. A report done for Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection estimated that half of Casco Bay’s eelgrass has died in the last five years. In a recent New York Times story, Phil Colarusso, a marine biologist with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said the 200,000 acres of eelgrass and salt marsh running from New York to Maine capture the same amount of carbon as is emitted by six million passenger cars a year. What happens to that carbon when eelgrass dies is unclear, but troubling.
Small scale efforts at eelgrass restoration in parts of the Great Bay estuary have been underway for several years – we’re learning much but not having huge success. While these efforts will continue, it’s critical that we not let up doing the hard work to improve water quality so we create conditions that are more favorable to eelgrass survival and that make the estuary more resilient to a changing climate. That means ongoing investment in wastewater treatment, better management of the stormwater that runs off the land with every rainstorm, and people throughout the region saying no to fertilizers and pesticides that damage our fragile waterways. There’s plenty of information about ways to protect clean water at home and in our communities at the new website 7 Rivers to the Coast.
But we also need to face the larger problem of climate change. Our winter snow is disappearing. Ice fishing and pond skating are no longer winter pastimes that New Englanders can count on. Freshwater lakes and ponds across New Hampshire and Maine are threatened by toxic algal blooms that can sicken people and pets. We’re seeing new insect infestations and diseases, damaging weather, too little water, or too much, and heated oceans pushing traditionally local fish further north and out of reach.
Climate change is front and center right now as political candidates crisscross the state asking for your vote. Ask them what they will do to help turn the tide of climate change that is damaging our communities and our environment, and altering our quality of life. Tell them we need to do more.
Climate change isn’t waiting. We can do better. We owe it to our kids, our communities, and the watery world of the Great Bay-Piscataqua region.
Melissa Paly, Great Bay-Piscataqua Waterkeeper, Conservation Law Foundation.
As the Great Bay-Piscataqua Waterkeeper, I have a front-row seat on what’s going on in our rivers, bays and coast.
