National Working Waterfront Network Conference 2022

The 2022 National Working Waterfront Network’s Conference will take place from July 19th to July 21st, 2022 in Boston, MA at UMass Boston’s oceanfront campus. 

The National Working Waterfront Network’s Conference is the only national event that brings together people from across North America to connect with one another and showcase (and initiate) initiatives that protect and promote working waterfronts.

Working waterfronts include waterfront lands, waterfront infrastructure, and waterways that are used for water-dependent activities, such as ports, marinas, small recreational boat harbors, and fishing docks.

By design, the conference moves around the country to highlight the diversity of the nation’s working waterfronts; to foster a cross-fertilization of ideas, knowledge, and solutions; and to generate strategic partnerships.

The National Working Waterfront Network will be partnering with the Urban Harbors Institute (UHI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston to host the 2022 conference.

Conference Sessions

Plenary Sessions, which will feature leaders and keynote presenters from the working waterfronts and waterways community.

Traditional Concurrent Sessions, which will include 15-20 minute speaker talks accompanied by PowerPoint presentations. Concurrent sessions will be arranged from individual abstracts submitted on similar topics. 

Breakout “Panel” Sessions, which will include 90-minute breakout sessions with a panel of speakers on topics related to a specific theme. 

Roundtable Discussions, which will include  90-minute breakout sessions of a facilitated and interactive discussion with engaged attendees on specific topics.

Formal Poster Session, which will feature all NWWN Conference poster presentations. 

Creative Communication Installations, includes an individual or team presentation, discussion or performance of art, media, film, poetry, etc. 

Field Trips

As a part of this conference, the NWWN has planned various field trips on the second day Wednesday, July 20th. In addition, there will be full-day field trips happening prior to the conference on Monday, July 18th as well.

The National Working Waterfront Network (NWWN) is a nationwide network of businesses, industry associations, nonprofits, local governments and communities, state and federal agencies, universities, Sea Grant programs, and individuals dedicated to supporting, preserving, and enhancing America’s working waterfronts and waterways.

For more information, visit nationalworkingwaterfronts.com 

NOAA Ribbed Mussel Urban Water Quality Study

ribbed mussels

Ribbed mussels can remove nitrogen and other excess nutrients from an urban estuary and could help improve water quality in other urban and coastal locations, according to a study in New York City’s Bronx River.

The findings, published in Environmental Science and Technology, are part of long-term efforts to improve water quality in the Bronx River Estuary.

Researchers at NOAA Fisheries Milford Laboratory in Milford, Connecticut began the two-year pilot project in June 2011.

They used a 20 x 20-foot raft with mussel growing lines hanging below as their field location in an industrial area near Hunt’s Point in the South Bronx, not far from a sewage treatment plant.

The waters were closed to shellfish harvesting because of bacterial contamination. Scientists monitored the condition of the ribbed mussels (Geukensia demissa) and the water quality over time to see how each responded.

“Ribbed mussels live in estuarine habitats and can filter bacteria, microalgae, nutrients and contaminants from the water,” said Julie Rose, a research ecologist at the Milford Laboratory, part of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and co-author of the study. “They are native to the East Coast so there are no concerns about invasive species disturbing the ecosystem, and they are efficient at filtering a variety of particles from the water. Ribbed mussels are not sold commercially, so whatever they eat will not be eaten by humans.”

Farming and harvesting shellfish to remove nitrogen and other excess nutrients from rivers, estuaries and coastal waters is known as nutrient bioextraction, or bioharvesting.

Mussels and other shellfish are filter feeders, and as the organisms grow, they take up or assimilate nutrients in algae and other microorganisms filtered from the surrounding waters.

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients occur naturally in the environment and are needed by plants and animals to grow, but too much of any of them is harmful.

Excess amounts from human activities often end up in rivers, streams and coastal environments, causing algal blooms, loss of sea grass and low oxygen levels in the water, which can kill large numbers of fish and other organisms.

Researchers found that the Bronx River mussels were generally healthy, and their tissues had high amounts of a local nitrogen isotope, indicating that they removed nitrogen from local waters.

They also had lower amounts of trace metals and organic contaminants than blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) collected from the seafloor nearby.

An estimated 138 pounds of nitrogen was removed from the river when the animals were harvested.

The researchers estimate that a fully populated 20 x 20 foot mussel raft similar to the one used in this study would clean an average of three million gallons of water and remove about 350 pounds of particulate matter, like dust and soot, daily.

The Bronx study is the first to examine the use of ribbed mussels for nutrient bioextraction in a highly urbanized estuarine environment.

source: Northeast Fisheries Science Center

2017 North Carolina Coastal Conference

2017 North Carolina Coastal Conference
April 4 - 5, 2017
McKimmon Center
Raleigh, NC

North Carolina Sea Grant will host North Carolina’s Coastal Conference, April 4 - 5, 2017, at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The 2017 Coastal Conference will energize partnerships to develop solutions that can benefit the state’s coastal communities, economies, and ecosystems.

“Many communities from central North Carolina to the coast found their resilience tested in 2016,” notes Susan White, executive director of North Carolina Sea Grant and the Water Resources Research Institute of the University of North Carolina system. “They continue to need information and resources to respond to, recover from and anticipate both urgent and long-term coastal challenges.”

Coastal Conference sessions will include:

weather, storms and climate;

community and ecosystem health;

fisheries and aquaculture; and

planning and economics.

Experts from the fields of economics, transportation, energy, environment, industry, and health will lead interdisciplinary sessions designed to bring together diverse perspectives.

The program includes a networking reception on April 4 at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences’ Nature Research Center in Raleigh.

Registration and other details are available at ncseagrant.ncsu.edu/nc-coastal-conference.

source: North Carolina Sea Grant