NEADC Environmental Info

Photo by Eduardo Velasco

MIT Sea Grant produces the Hitchhikers Guide to Exotic Species, a guide to spotting non-native invader species. Download a copy in PDF format. Waterproof guides are also available here

Reef Environmental Education Foundation is a grass-roots, non-profit organization of recreational divers who regularly conduct fish biodiversity and abundance surveys during their dives.
View collection data for Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Bays Program is a partnership of citizens, communities and government that strives to protect and enhance the coastal health and heritage of Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays

The New England Aquarium's hotline for any stranded marine animal is (617) 973-5247
All reports of living or dead marine animals should be reported to the hotline #, which is manned 24/7. Land animals and marine birds should be reported to town/city animal control.
What to do
More info

Northeast Seafood Watch
A program of Monterey Bay Aquarium designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources.
NEW: Seafood watch by text message: text the word: "FISH" and the fish type to 30644 (normal text rates apply)

Environmental Blog

Beach Cleanup

Beach clean up May 30th. Cookout to follow at Camp Harbor View. RSVP to Shawn Cormier at environmental@neadc.org Deadline to respond is May 25

When: Saturday, May 30th, 2009 10:00am—3:00pm

Where: Camp Harbor View, Long Island, Boston Harbor, One Mood Island Road, Boston, MA 02171

Why: Camp Harbor View needs a good spring cleaning to get ready for another great summer season

What: Activities will include landscaping, gardening, beach clean-up, as well as a multitude of indoor clean-up projects, such as painting and window washing.

*Lunch will be served

The Bay vs the Bag

Very well done video about plastics in the San Francisco Bay

Coastsweep 2009

Join us for this annual state-wide cleanup effort!

More info as it comes!

Stellwagen Bank Report Card

NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary has released the sanctuary's first-ever *Condition Report*, a "report card" on the status of sanctuary resources, the impending release of the draft management plan which we anticipate will be available for public comment in the early summer. The documents can be accessed at http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/condition/.

The sanctuary appears to be working toward their goals, - the only declining conditions are the invasive [MORE INFO]species and the the negative impacts of fishing gear on maritime archaeological resources.

Do Marine Protected Areas Really Work?

Here's an interesting aticle from Wood's Hole's Oceanus Magazine about whether closing parts of the ocean to fishing really works to preserve fish stocks. It specifically focuses on George's Bank

"These closures have given us a unique opportunity to examine a marine protected area in a temperate system under a “macroscope”—to examine how marine ecosystems are structured and how they function and recover. The long history of research on Georges Bank adds a foundation of scientific knowledge that makes the Georges Bank MPA an ideal system to test the effects of year-round fishery closures."

Cleanup photo gallery

Photos from the various dive club cleanups are in the scrapbook