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 In
this
show, conservationists work to protect endangered species
by restoring the ecosystems in which they live. In 1985, the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts began its effort to save the
famously filthy Boston Harbor. Fifteen years and 5 billion
dollars later, life is returning to the harbor and scientists
are relishing the chance to watch an ecosystem restore itself
before their eyes.
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The
Way it Was
The
Boston Harbor garnered national attention during the 1988
presidential race between then-Vice President George Bush
and Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. Republican television
ads blamed the governor for the dumping of "500 million
gallons of barely treated sewage" into the harbor each
day. During one debate, Candidate Bush quipped, "That
answer was about as clear as Boston Harbor."
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People
had been dumping into the harbor since the early 1600's.
It was a virtual wasteland.
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For
Massachusetts residents, the insults hit home. People had
been dumping waste into the harbor since Europeans colonized
the region in the early 1600's. By the late 1980's, the main
pollution culprit was the two decades-old treatment plants,
still releasing millions of gallons of sewage - 25% of which
was untreated - into each outgoing tide. The problem was so
serious that city beaches were closed more than half of every
summer. The harbor was a virtual wasteland.
Eugene
Gallagher, Professor of Environmental Coastal and Ocean Sciences
at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, has studied the
harbor for 17 years.
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In the 1980's, the harbor's 20 beaches were fighting a
losing battle with pollution. |
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"Dismal.
It was in hideous shape," says Gallagher of the Harbor's
condition in the 1980's. "Large parts of the harbor were
inhabited by just two or three species."
Instead
of the copious cod and shellfish that had once called the
harbor home, marine worms known as capitellids now dominated
the scene. Capitellids thrive only in highly polluted waters
that competing species cannot tolerate. Populations of lobster
and winter flounder, which both fed on the earthworm-like
capitellids, also skyrocketed.
"They
were like grizzlies at the trashcans in Yellowstone,"
recalls Gallagher.
Fishermen
and scientists alike could net hundreds of fish in an hour
-- but not that you'd want to eat them. A 1984 study found
that some 80% had liver disease. A full 17% of these harbor
fish had active liver cancer -- the highest rate ever recorded
anywhere in the world.
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