'PCCS Executive Director Peter Borrelli calls for Ecosystem-based Management Through a Regional Coordinating Council for Nantucket Sound

Sound management
Could Nantucket Sound become a 'dead zone'?

The United Nations reported last week that the world's oceans now contain about 200 ''dead zones'' - places where pollution threatens fish and other marine life. That's a 34 percent increase in the number of such zones in just two years.

How does it happen? Fertilizer runoff, sewage and fossil-fuel burning are the chief causes. The pollution feeds algae, which deprives marine life of oxygen.

Here on Cape Cod, excess nutrients, particularly nitrogen from septic systems, enter our bays and estuaries, which cause explosive blooms of algae. Nutrients from lawn fertilizers also threaten our coastal waters.

That's one of the reasons we need ecosystem-based management of Nantucket Sound - not management based on federal, state and local political boundaries.

And that's exactly what the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies called for in a comprehensive report issued nearly two years ago.

''Political boundaries (state and federal waters) make actually no sense in a marine environment,'' said Peter Borelli, executive director of the Center. ''Ecosystem management should be the guiding force in management of ocean policies.''

As a result, the Center recommended that the waters from Nantucket Sound to Georges Bank be managed by a Nantucket Shelf regional coordinating committee. The committee ''could be administered jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs,'' according to the Center.

The Cape Cod Commission, Martha's Vineyard Commission, and the Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission would represent local and regional interests.

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt supports a comprehensive management model that gives state and local officials a role in protecting Nantucket Sound.

''One way is through federal legislation to create a (national marine) sanctuary as was proposed in the 1980s,'' said Mark Forest, Delahunt's chief of staff. Another option is to ''revitalize the existing ocean sanctuary with state legislation that guarantees local involvement and guidance.''

Meanwhile, state Sen. Rob O'Leary has filed ocean management legislation to protect coastal waters from haphazard development of wind farms, LNG platforms and floating casinos.

''The bill would establish clear planning procedures to assert the commonwealth's authority to manage public trust resources and bring state government up to speed with private industry innovations and associated management challenges,'' O'Leary said. ''We need to develop ocean management policies now in order to protect our oceans from irreparable harm and overdevelopment.''

The Senate approved the legislation, but it awaits action by the House.

It's time to end piecemeal management of Nantucket Sound.

(Published: October 26, 2006)

**