This Side Up

More than a change in season?

By John Howell
Posted 10/18/16

Fall has a way of coloring one's thoughts. The brilliant yellows and oranges, all the brighter against a backdrop of green, sharpen the senses. The reds of a maple transform a familiar turn in the road, with no particular significance, into a spectacular

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This Side Up

More than a change in season?

Posted

Fall has a way of coloring one’s thoughts.

The brilliant yellows and oranges, all the brighter against a backdrop of green, sharpen the senses. The reds of a maple transform a familiar turn in the road, with no particular significance, into a spectacular display. The clear light and long shadows of the autumn sun accentuate the scene like a sharpie.

It’s hard to imagine a place without a change is seasons, when the sun’s travels vary little and days are predictably similar. That’s not for me.

Yet we chafe at shorter days and lament, with reluctance, the night we turn our clocks back an hour, albeit to gain an hour of sleep.

The clock is a good metaphor. The hour has struck. A new hour has begun.

Unlike a clock, the time ahead is not fully predictable. We can expect colder days and snow, but how cold and how much snow is a wild card.

The cycle has a rhythm, however, the tune can change. That’s the beauty of it, although the nearly 100 inches of snow we received two winters ago was too much for my liking. It’s when the cycle falls out of synch – a misplaced beat – that the change becomes troublesome. There must be a reason and there must be a remedy, or so we believe.

Such were the questions when the bay was closed to shellfishing because of a harmful algae bloom, or as it is labeled a HAB. This was the first HAB to close Narragansett Bay to shellfishing.

The bloom is made up of phytoplankton – Pseudo-nitzschia spp – that can produce toxins. Should the toxins find their way into the meat of shellfish that is consumed by humans it can cause nausea and even the loss of memory, according to the Department of Health.

The HAB is not unique to Rhode Island waters. The Gulf of Maine has been affected, as well as Massachusetts waters.

Bay closures whether to shellfishing or swimming are not unusual.

With certainty sections of the bay are closed to shellfishing following heavy rain. We know the flushing action of those rains can introduce harmful bacteria. And we know that given time, shellfish cleanse their systems and are safe for consumption.

Biologists are looking for answers to the HAB. Might the summer have served up the ideal conditions for the proliferations of this species of phytoplankton? Did the presence or absence of another species contribute? Has human activity, in some way, played a role?

We don’t know.

Thankfully, conditions have improved. The ban on shellfishing has been lifted. There may be calls to identify the cause and to take corrective action if that is possible. More likely the HAB will fade from the news with shellfish found free of toxins and quahoggers out on the bay again.

The occurrence will go down as an oddity. There will be theories and maybe even more than guesses as to what caused it. As long as clams are untainted by another HAB, everybody will be happy.

Let’s look at this from another perspective, that of the change of seasons we’re now going through.

Might we be entering a new cycle where HABs become as predictable as the leaves and their radiant display?

It’s not a comforting thought, although understanding the science would be helpful.

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