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The Bay Window Program: Monitoring and Assessing Changing Fisheries Yields, Ecology, and Water Quality in Narragansett BayBy Kenneth Sherman
Early projects included the design and construction of a new RIDEM research vessel, an analysis of fish trawl survey results, an assessment of heavy metal and organic contaminants in the sediments of Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island coastal ponds, the establishment of a network of three continuously sampling fixed-site stations, and an assessment of Narragansett Bay productivity using advanced technology deployed monthly from an undulating towed-body sampler (Mariner Shuttle) to assess spatial and temporal patterns of primary productivity and plankton distribution. The early findings of the project components were documented in the Rhode Island Sea Grant publication Narragansett Bay Window—The Cooperative Bay Program Phase 1. The success of the initial program led to additional funding in 2000. The continuation of the Bay Window Program involved researchers from RIDEM, NOAA Fisheries, the Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NBNERR), the University of Rhode Island (URI), Roger Williams University (RWU), and Brown University. The program focused on enhancing assessments of the fish and fisheries of the Bay, as well as extending the baseline of data on the environmental and ecological conditions that support the Bay’s finfish and shellfish stocks. During this phase, a website, www.NarrBay.org, was set up to serve as a clearinghouse for scientific and general information on Narragansett Bay. The research vessel R/V John H. Chafee was equipped, fixed sites were kept operational, monthly transects were continued, and RIDEM maintained work on the characterization of the fish and fisheries of the Bay. New projects initiated were an outreach component to facilitate the dissemination of Bay Window results to the public and scientific community, an intense series of sampling cruises in the upper Bay to assess the extent of hypoxic events, an examination of Bay productivity through remote sensing, and a characterization of the benthic fauna in relation to changing winter temperature and the absence of the winter-spring bloom. The continued monitoring and assessments of the Bay Window Program are the principal source of science-based information on Narragansett Bay productivity, fish and fisheries, and pollution and ecosystem health. Results from the various elements of the Bay Window Program are systematically synthesized and reported to the local, state, and federal agencies responsible for governing and protecting the Bay. Results are documented in this special section of 41°N: A Publication of Rhode Island Sea Grant and the URI Coastal Institute. The cooperative approach of the Bay Window Program, among RIDEM, URI, RWU, Brown University, NBNERR, and NOAA, has proven successful. Working together under the framework of the Bay Window Program, the best of Rhode Island marine science is applied to provide data and timely information in support of management actions for the recovery of the health and sustainability of the great wealth of marine resources and critical environments of the Bay. Based on the assessment of the ecological condition of the Bay, a major nitrogen removal effort is under way that aims to reduce nitrogen inputs from wastewater treatment plant effluent. This will have a positive impact in improving the ecology and health of the Bay. When a major hypoxic event and fish kill occurred in Narragansett Bay, the timing of which was predicted by Bay Window researchers, RIDEM increased its water quality measurements, and the Bay Window Program expanded its fixed-site network to additional areas of the Bay. The Bay Window Program represents for Rhode Island marine scientists and managers a unique and effective means for working together to improve the environmental assets and socioeconomic —Kenneth Sherman is Bay Window Steering Committee Chairman |
In 1997, Sen. John H. Chafee, responding to significant gaps in scientific data that were needed for
assessing resource damage to Narragansett Bay from the North Cape oil spill, sponsored a cooperative project to be jointly managed by the R.I. Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) and NOAA Fisheries. The goal of the project was to advance understanding of the fish stocks, fisheries, ecology, and health of Narragansett Bay in support of RIDEM’s fisheries management responsibilities. The approach was designed to enhance RIDEM’s fish and fisheries monitoring and to support and coordinate Narragansett Bay monitoring and assessment activities involving federal, state, and academic institutions.
Rhode
Island Sea Grant |
Coastal Institute |