Pleasant Bay Symposium Program and Abstracts 2006

The Pleasant Bay Alliance, Cape Cod National Seashore and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant gratefully acknowledge

Chatham Bars Inn

For their generous support and hospitality.

11:15 Predicting Inlet Evolution Using Rectified Aerial Photographs and Field Surveys

11:45 – 1:00

Complimentary Lunch Break

Managing a Dynamic System:

Biodiversity within Pleasant Bay:

Our oceans are under increasing developmental pressure. Recent proposals for liquefied natural gas terminals, sand and gravel mining, desalinization plants, gas pipelines, telecommunications cables, and wind energy facilities have raised numerous concerns among local, state, and federal agencies, and the general public about how to manage the diversity of uses and the impacts of this intensified development pressure on the marine ecosystem. Governance structures for ocean resources management have historically focused on single resources or activities, and public decisions about whether to allow certain activities have occurred through a case-by-case, reactive and fragmented approach. New legislation is needed to give public agencies clear direction and stronger authority for managing activities in a proactive manner.

Comprehensive ocean management legislation is now before the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, having been reported favorably out of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources & Agriculture. The Massachusetts Ocean Act,

S. 2308, calls for the development and implementation of an ocean management plan that would govern development activities and foster environmentally sustainable uses of Massachusetts’ waters, while protecting valuable marine resources. If enacted, this legislation would be the first of its kind in the

United States

and place Massachusetts at the forefront of the national debate over ocean planning.

Elected in 2000, Senator Robert O’Leary is currently serving his third term representing the Cape and Islands in the Massachusetts Senate. Senator O’Leary is Chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, and serves on the Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources in the Massachusetts Legislature.

When the Plimoth Colonists first stepped upon the shores of Cape Cod Bay in the cold, forbidding November of 1620, they found not a New World but an old one – a landscape that bore traces of 10,000 years of human endeavor. Today, coastal erosion and development frequently reveal the material evidence of this long history. This is especially true along the shores of Pleasant Bay, where for centuries, native communities drew sustenance from the rich environments that define that landscape.

Archaeologist, Frederick J. Dunford, Ph.D., has studied the prehistory and early history of Cape Cod for more than twenty-five years. Since 1982, his research has been supported by the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. The Wing Island Archaeology survey (Brewster), which began in 1995, is his most recent project. Dunford and Greg O’Brien are co-authors of Secrets in the Sand, the Archaeology of Cape Cod.

Abstract:

Erosion of the wave-cut glacial cliffs of outer Cape Cod has produced remarkable depositional landforms to their north, Provincetown Hook, and to their south, the Nauset Beach-Monomoy barrier complex. Because Nauset Beach forms the eastern boundary of Pleasant Bay and Chatham Harbor, tides in the bay and harbor become distorted as the barrier beach migrates westward. This distortion causes the bay and harbor tides to lag behind the outer (ocean) tides, and periodically the time lag become sufficiently large to cause formation of a new tidal inlet through the barrier.

Present understanding of these processes is sufficient to permit estimates of future configurations of the Nauset Beach-Monomoy complex, however the reliability of such estimates is limited by two significant uncertainties. The first concerns the question of whether or not the complex continues to be a net depositional system or rather is a now-eroding remnant of a former deposit. The second uncertainty concerns the influence on the system of engineering structures designed to limit upland erosion.

About the Speaker:

Graham Giese is a coastal geologist with the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and an Oceanographer Emeritus with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has studied coastal processes in many parts of the world, but has now returned to the problem with which he began his career fifty years ago, the changing forms of outer Cape Cod.

Water Quality Management

Abstract:

This presentation will describe the efforts of the Pleasant Bay Alliance in the creation and implementation of a bay-wide water quality monitoring program. The water quality program will be described in terms of the programmatic goals, volunteer management, sampling effort, and results. The integral relationship with the Massachusetts Estuaries Project will be described as well as the relationship to watershed issues.

About the Speaker:

Robert Duncanson, Ph.D. has served the Town of Chatham since 1987 as Director of the Water Quality Laboratory and as Director of Health & Environment since 2002. With a Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island and a BS from the University of Miami, he has more than 25 years experience in the marine water quality field. A member of the Pleasant Bay Alliance Technical Resource Committee, he has served as technical manager for the water quality monitoring program since its inception.

Chatham’s unique location at the “elbow” of Cape Cod affords the Town with one of the most diverse and dynamic coastal shorelines along the east coast. With over 66 miles of shoreline, Chatham must frequently respond to the ever-present changes that occur along its coastlines and waterways. These challenges have been particularly acute following the break in Nauset Beach in 1987 that created the new inlet system opposite the Chatham Lighthouse. A new inlet formation was actually anticipated to occur somewhere in the vicinity of the actual break as part of the historical evolutionary cycle of the Nauset Beach system. Regardless, the new inlet caused immediate widespread changes in the form and conditions of the shorelines and channel systems, the impacts of which are still being addressed today and likely for many years to come. The new inlet exposed portions of Chatham’s inner mainland shoreline to much higher wave and sea conditions which hadn’t been experienced in close to a hundred years. In addition, the new inlet resulted in a substantial increase in the tidal flow into Pleasant Bay. Both the heightened wave transmission and increased tidal flow quickly resulted in severe shoreline erosion and channel shoaling along Chatham’s shorefront and waterways.

Soon after the break in Nauset Beach, severe erosion along portions of the public and private coastal bank inner shorelines resulted in substantial shoreline armoring along the most vulnerable zones. To address the shoaling problems, the Town has developed a proactive dredging and sand management program to maintain the important navigation channel providing access to Chatham’s municipal Fish Pier required by its commercial fishing fleet. With close awareness of the dynamics of the system of channels and shoals, the Town has been able to maintain this navigation access in a cost effective manner. This has been accomplished through close coordination with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Barnstable County dredging program. An overriding goal of the program has been to recognize the value of clean dredged material and thus to utilize the dredged sand in as beneficial a manner as possible to replenish many of Chatham’s eroding shores.

About the Speaker:

Ted Keon is the Director of the Coastal Resources Department with the Town of Chatham, a position he has held since January 1998. Mr. Keon is the primary liaison for Chatham’s marine related activities and committees. He oversees the planning and implementation of projects affecting Chatham’s waterways and water dependent infrastructure and also provides oversight of Chatham’s Town landings and water access. As department head of the Coastal Resources Department, he also has supervisory duties over Chatham’s Shellfish Department and Permit Office. Prior to his position with Chatham, Mr. Keon was the Chief of the Coastal Planning Section of the Philadelphia District of the Army Corps of Engineers. During his tenure with the Corps, Mr. Keon was actively involved in the planning and development of numerous shore protection, navigation and other coastal related projects and activities along the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware and Delaware Bay. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Physical Geography from the University of Delaware and Arizona State University.

Coastal erosion is a critical process for the continued existence of beaches, dunes, barrier beaches, saltmarshes, and tidal flats, along with the biological communities that depend on these landforms for their existence. Storms, relative sea level rise, and now human activity are the primary forces that drive coastal erosion. Yet, these important processes and forces are considered ‘hazards’ that need to be managed or controlled when waterfront buildings or infrastructure is threatened.

As a result of this human-induced conflict, a variety of erosion control techniques, ranging from traditional to innovative, have been implemented and field-tested over many years. These alternatives vary widely, from working with the forces of nature by relocating threatened structures or conducting bank and dune nourishment, to attempts to control the erosion process through structural armoring, such as revetment construction.

This presentation will highlight the importance of the coastal erosion process, provide examples and discussion of a variety of structural and non-structural erosion control alternatives, and touch on some of the regulatory constraints of certain erosion control approaches.

Jim O’Connell has been the Coastal Processes Specialist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Sea Grant Program and Cape Cod Cooperative Extension for the past 6 years. Prior to this position he was the Marine Resources Specialist with the Cape Cod Commission, and spent 13 years as the coastal geologist and hazards coordinator for the MA CZM Program. Jim’s specialty is analyzing shoreline change and the effects of human activities on coastal processes and on the beneficial functions of coastal landforms, and exploring erosion control alternatives.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant Program & Cape Cod Cooperative Extension

Hydrodynamics of the Pleasant Bay Estuary

Abstract:

It is well understood that inlets to tidal estuaries systems exist as a result of the balance between the littoral drift and tidal flushing. In general, wave-induced currents along the coast transport sediment along the shoreline causing inlet shoaling and/or migration in the direction of the dominant littoral drift. Water elevation differences between the ocean and the estuarine system create tidal flows that prevent inlet closure by providing sufficient water velocity to scour sediments from the main channel. For many natural inlet systems, a period of barrier spit elongation is followed by episodic breaching of the barrier beach, resulting in a more hydraulically efficient inlet channel. For the Pleasant Bay system, the most recent cycle of barrier elongation and breaching took approximately 140 years, with significant alterations to the tide range and the associated tidal exchange (tidal flushing). These hydraulic changes can impact estuarine water over the same time periods. Quantification of changes to physical hydrodynamic processes can be utilized effectively to determine the influence of inlet migration on estuarine water quality. To quantify the influence of inlet position on physical parameters governing water quality, a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the Pleasant Bay system for existing and post-breach conditions was developed. This model illustrated changes in tidal elevations and water quality parameters associated with elongation of Nauset Beach to its pre-1987 conditions. In addition, the model was used to assess sediment transport pathways in the vicinity of the inlet.

About the Speaker:

Mr. Ramsey is a Principal Coastal Engineer at Applied Coastal Research and Engineering, Inc. (Applied Coastal), and has served as Project Manager and/or Principal Investigator for numerous estuarine water quality/flushing studies and coastal embayment restoration projects, as well as beach nourishment and coastal structure designs. He has lived and worked as a coastal engineer on Cape Cod for the past 15 years. Mr. Ramsey currently serves as the vice-president of the Association of Coastal Engineers, the coastal engineering consultant to the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management office, and the lead numerical modeler for the Massachusetts Estuaries Project. He has an M.S. in Coastal Engineering from the University of Delaware and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Cornell University.

Overview of Biodiversity of Pleasant Bay: Threatened Habitats, Priorities for Conservation and Restoration.

Abstract:

After a brief examination of the threats facing the flora and fauna of the Pleasant Bay system, we will focus on the various habitats that are included in this watershed. The state and federally listed species will be noted along with some comments about their natural history and status on Cape Cod. The significance of Pleasant Bay to these rare species will be examined.

Finally, we will look at the critical habitat needs of these species and what we need to do to preserve these flora and fauna. Suggestions of areas that need to be protected and areas that could be restored will be presented. Overall we want to mitigate, reduce or halt the impacts on natural populations as human activities increase around the Bay.

About the Speaker:

Bob Prescott is the director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary located on Cape Cod where he has been actively involved in coastal issues and research. Bob has a degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Massachusetts and has studied such diverse topics as whale strandings, harbor seal distribution around Cape Cod and, most recently, home range of box turtles. Bob also is the Southeastern Massachusetts coordinator for the Northeast Sea Turtle Stranding Network.

Bob's particular interest is in coastal ecosystems and the wildlife, both vertebrate and invertebrates, associated with them. Bob has led trips to

Belize

Costa Rica

, the Galapagos Islands, Churchill, Manitoba, looking for polar bears, Antarctica, as well as to many places in the

U.S.

such as Big Bend, Texas and Southeastern Arizona.

Abstract:

The viability of establishing the relationship between inlet evolution and the morphology of the active flood-tidal delta using rectified vertical aerial photographs is being investigated. A new inlet formed during an extratropical storm in January 1987 along the southern portion of Nauset Spit. After this event the flood-tidal delta, the large sand bar to the immediate southeast of Tern Island, began to increase in size and migrate slowly for the next 3-4 years after which it grew nearly twice as wide and began to migrate to the north, away from the inlet. In the last 5-7 years the flood-tidal delta has elongated and narrowed. The history of this inlet has been extraordinarily well-documented with yearly vertical aerial photographs and many large scale studies.

For this ongoing study 11 field surveys of the intertidal portion of the flood-tidal delta were conducted between April 2004 and August 2005, to better understand the sediment transport system, with over 400 bedforms measured (spacing, height, orientation, etc). During one survey, current velocities were recorded at 3 stations on the flood-tidal delta every 15 minutes for an entire tidal cycle. A two-week sidescan sonar survey of Pleasant Bay and Chatham Harbor was conducted in June 2005. The intertidal and subtidal bedforms in the area are being mapped using all of these data. Rectification and spatial analysis of vertical aerial photographs is ongoing; specifically the morphology of the flood-tidal delta, inlet evolution and the changes seen in both are being documented through time. Those data coupled with information taken from the bedform, sidescan and velocity surveys will be used to document the link between flood-tidal delta morphology and inlet evolution in the hopes of developing a quantitative, scientifically-defensible method to project into the future possible scenarios for: inlet migration, evolution and new inlet formation (likelihood, position, etc.) similar to the January 1987 event.

About the Speaker:

Mark Borrelli is a PhD candidate in coastal geology at the University of Rhode Island. He worked as a coastal geologist for the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management in Boston for two years.

Using Remote Sensing and GIS to monitor the Eelgrass Resources of Pleasant Bay and the rest of the Massachusetts Coast

For the past 12 years MADEP has been monitoring the presence and absence of eelgrass resources of the entire coastline. This project has utilized aerial imagery and extensive field surveys to produce a very comprehensive database of the status of the eelgrass resource statewide.

This presentation will report on the findings of the monitoring project for Pleasant Bay.

About the Speaker:

Charles Costello has been the Section Chief of the Wetlands Mapping Program of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for fifteen years. In this position he has developed a large scale digital mapping database of the state’s wetland resources. During the last few years, Charlie has developed a project to detect wetlands changes using remote sensing, image processing and GIS. This project has produced a new successful initiative to enforce wetland protection regulations in Massachusetts. Several states have expressed interest in developing a similar remote sensing strategy. Charlie also heads a summer months project to accurately map and monitor the coastal underwater submerged aquatic vegetation resources for the state. He has been the recipient of the USEPA Environmental Merit Award for his work in wetlands mapping and enforcement. In his leisure time, Charlie likes to frequent wetlands and stream areas to flyfish for trout and salmon and hunt grouse with his pointing dogs (no gun). He is a lifelong student of natural history and is a serious conservationist.