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Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center

    ECOLOGY

    Comments Are Sought on Stellwagen Bank Plan

    Soundscape and shipwrecks are upcoming action initiatives

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, which manages the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) — an 842-square-mile stretch of ocean three miles north of Provincetown — has drafted an extensive game plan for the next 10 years.

    Since the last management plan was issued in 2010, “we’ve had advances in science and changes in environmental issues,” said Anne Smrcina, the education and outreach coordinator at the SBNMS.

    A map of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary shows its proximity to Provincetown. (Image courtesy NOAA)

    The new plan outlines 15 areas for action, including the development of a visitor center proposed for MacMillan Pier. “Provincetown is a key gateway to the offshore sanctuary,” said Pete DeCola, SBNMS’s superintendent. “Most of the whale watching trips head out from there, and we’re mindful of what the sanctuary can do to promote a healthy environment and a strong ‘blue economy.’ ”

    SBNMS has invited public comment on the plan through Jan. 21. Smrcina said the sanctuary is hoping to hear from fishermen, biologists, U.S. Coast Guard members, and other stakeholders.

    Other key areas include action on climate change, whale conservation, and shipwrecks. Climate change became a more urgent focus of sanctuary research after a 2015 study found that “sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine increased faster than 99 percent of the global ocean.”

    The plan touches on familiar obstacles to whale conservation, like entanglements in fishing gear and ship strikes, but it also takes on a newly recognized threat: noise. In particular, the plan proposes to look at how humpbacks and North Atlantic right whales fare in the sanctuary’s noisy underwater environment.

    Historic shipwrecks got their own section, too, since nearby scallop beds are set to reopen in April 2022. A concern is the possible effect of dredges and bottom trawls, which may very well chug right into those sunken schooners.

    The Whales’ Soundscape

    Large domestic and foreign-flagged vessels crisscross the waters of Stellwagen Bank, following designated shipping lanes to and from the Port of Boston. Tankers ferrying liquefied natural gas and oil also join the mix, along with barges, cruise liners, and container ships. Amid all this traffic, whales in the sanctuary are at risk of fatal ship strikes.

    Over the past 10 years, NOAA has been trying to keep vessel operators abreast of nearby humpbacks and right whales. They’ve rolled out WhaleAlert, an app that offers the operators maps of whale management areas, recommended routes, and real-time warnings. The Right Whale Corporate Responsibility program also kicked off in 2010, recognizing top shipping companies who slow down to comply with speed regulations in management areas. And SBNMS has been promoting gear modifications to prevent entanglements.

    SBNMS’s draft plan aims to tackle how noise disturbances degrade the sanctuary’s “acoustic habitat” and how that affects whales and other soniferous species — animals that depend on sound for communication, mating, and spawning, among others behaviors.

    A NOAA and National Park Service study that began in 2016 compared sound levels in Stellwagen Bank and three other national sanctuaries: Gray’s Reef off Georgia, the Florida Keys, and Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico. It found that Stellwagen Bank had the highest sound levels of the four.

    Scallops and Shipwrecks

    Ship strikes threaten not only humpbacks and right whales but also wrecked coal schooners, like the Palmer and the Crary.

    In 1902, the Frank A. Palmer and the Louise B. Crary, each loaded with 3,000 tons of coal, departed from Newport News, Va. But as they neared Boston, they encountered a five-day nor’easter. The Crary rammed into the Palmer, and both ships sank to a depth of more than 300 feet, where they have lain for more than a century.

    Stellwagen Bank is home to 47 shipwrecks — seven of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (both the Palmer and Crary made the list). “There could be more out there,” DeCola said. “We just haven’t found them yet.”

    SBNMS’s management plan identifies these wrecks as “time capsules” of the region’s maritime heritage. But an “emerging issue” looms for this cultural resource, according to DeCola. Modern-day scallop dredges and bottom trawls could kick these sunken ships while they’re already hundreds of feet down.

    About four years ago, scallops bloomed on Stellwagen Bank, and soon a derby-style commercial fishery converged on the area, surprising the sanctuary’s ecologists. “It hadn’t been on our radar,” said Alice Stratton, a sanctuary marine ecologist and permit coordinator, who helped put together the plan.

    Whale tagging researchers view the breach of a young humpback whale. (Photo by Ari Friedlaender, NOAA Fisheries Permit #14245)

    “People were getting out and catching as many scallops as they could,” DeCola added. “That ended up being a free-for-all.”

    Dredges dragged the bottom, raking up shellfish and also skimming close to the ships. “If a scallop dredge makes contact with a shipwreck, well, the shipwreck is going to lose about every time,” DeCola said.

    The Stellwagen Bank scallop fishery has since cooled, after shellfish surveys detected a plunge in harvestable-size stock. After the initial bonanza, the New England Fishery Management Council closed the area from 2020 to 2021, to allow time for smaller scallops to grow.

    That hiatus also allowed the sanctuary to develop a shipwreck avoidance program, which aims to notify fishing captains of the locations of wrecks relative to the scallop beds. SBNMS has also worked with groundfish sector managers such as the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, which issues permits, to give fishermen a heads up.

    This year, the pilot program will be put to the test. The Stellwagen Bank scallop beds are slated to reopen on April 1, 2022, according to a NEFMC press release.

    The public comment period on the new sanctuary management plan ends Jan. 21. The plan and instructions on how to comment can be found at https://stellwagen.noaa.gov/. Comments may also be sent by email to [email protected].

    Caitlin Townsend contributed reporting for this article.

    SPACES

    As Stellwagen Visitor Center Takes Shape, Selects Take Notice

    Board asks if enough public feedback has been heard

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — A sleeper project since 2016, the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center burst into the limelight on March 8 when the select board recommended a 9,500-square-foot building at the base of MacMillan Pier with public bathrooms, meeting space, and interpretive displays.

    Conrad Ello of Oudens Ello Architecture of Boston, whose credits include the Eastham Public Library, will now refine the conceptual design and bring back to the town a cost estimate for the construction in about a month, according to project manager Anne-Marie Runfola, who works for one of the town’s partners on the project, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

    Board members expressed some surprise at the presentation by the project partners, NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary, the nonprofit Center for Coastal Studies, and town staff. The building will have a big impact on the waterfront, said select board chair David Abramson. It also seemed to get to this point with little public input, he added.

    “For something this big on the waterfront we need to get more feedback from the public,” said Abramson. “I wonder if we have not done enough outreach.”

    The two top concepts for a Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Provincetown. The preferred location and design is on the right. (Courtesy Stellwagen Bank visitor center project steering committee)

    In fact, said Runfola, the pandemic did hamper the steering committee’s ability to reach the public. On Nov. 12, the Independent reported on a socially distanced outdoor kickoff event, but it was held on a rainy October day, said Runfola, and was not well attended.

    The plans have been progressing slowly for years. In 2016, special town meeting voters raised $17,000 for a feasibility study for a visitor center. In 2017, voters raised another $25,000 for location and conceptual design work, which included hiring the architect. The Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary, which is one of 13 sanctuaries in the U.S., contributed an amount equal to the town’s for feasibility and design work, Runfola said.

    “It is going to loom very large out there,” said Lise King of the select board.

    The 39-foot height will include 6.5-foot risers, since it’s in the flood zone. The applicants will need a variance to exceed the town’s 33-foot height limit, said Ello. The building would eliminate 55 to 60 parking spaces, costing the town about $137,500 (based on average revenue per space of $2,500).

    During the draft design phase, locations and renderings were seen by 100 people through presentations on the Center for Coastal Studies website, Runfola said. Four options were winnowed down to two: the one the select board favored and another, called “the pavilion,” which would be on the Ryder Street side of the MacMillan lot, by the current bus stop. The pavilion option would also transform the bus stop area into a park, Ello said. But the 100 who viewed earlier presentations and the select board preferred the more traditional architecture of the long, two-story building by MacMillan Pier.

    Select board member Louise Venden, a member of the visitor’s center steering committee, said this is an exciting opportunity to present the wonders of Stellwagen Bank, an underwater plateau that is a smorgasbord for marine mammals and a vital fishing ground for all of New England.

    “If we were able to get this visitor center it would be so fitting and so appropriate” said Rich Delaney, president and CEO of the Center for Coastal Studies. “It would serve as a catalyst to expand and add to the critical mass to bring Provincetown toward a center for excellence in research.”

    Rex McKinsey, the town’s marine coordinator, said that, besides being a place for learning, the visitor center would replace the rundown public comfort station at the parking lot and offer electric car charging stations.

    According to the feasibility study done in 2017, there would be no charge to enter the center, but revenue equaling 42 percent of the $593,000 operational budget is projected from renting out spaces to educational groups.

    Ultimately, the town, the Center for Coastal Studies, and NOAA would share in the maintenance, staffing, and programming of the center through a memorandum of understanding, Runfola said. Typically, with visitor centers elsewhere, the host town owns the building itself, she said.

    But just how exactly will the building be built and who will pay? Runfola said it is likely the town, the Center for Coastal Studies, and NOAA would all contribute, adding that a lot depends on a future federal budget.

    PUBLIC SPACE

    Making Stellwagen Bank More Than ‘a Line on the Map’

    Spaces for community use are part of the visitor center plan

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — One of the Outer Cape’s greatest assets is its proximity to Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, a federally protected swath of ocean whose southernmost boundary is just three miles north of Provincetown. It harbors a thriving marine ecosystem that supports the local fishing and whale-watching industries.

    Yet, to many people, it is little more than “a line on the map,” said Anne-Marie Runfola, program coordinator and visitor center project manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

    NOAA, the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), and the town are working to change the way people see Stellwagen Bank with a new waterfront visitor center to be tucked between the bus parking spots and pump station at the Commercial Street end of MacMillan Pier.

    Whale sightings are common at Stellwagen Bank, but under the surface is a rich ecosystem familiar to fishermen but few others. (Photo Andrew J. Martinez/NOAA Photo Library)

    First discovered in 1854, Stellwagen Bank is an 842-square-mile expanse of open ocean. This bank, said Runfola, “is not a financial institution.” It is, she explained, an underwater plateau left when the glaciers retreated more than 10,000 years ago.

    It is also a rich feeding ground, supporting many marine species. That’s because “it has steep sides, but it’s also shallow on top,” said Runfola. “That allows for photosynthesis in the warmer water on the top, and then wind and waves help bring nutrients from the bottom back up to the surface.”

    When Stellwagen Bank was designated a National Marine Sanctuary in 1992, NOAA took control of regulating what activities are allowed within the area. Despite federal protection, however, Stellwagen Bank is far from an economic dead zone.

    “The term ‘sanctuary’ is a bit of a misnomer,” said Pete DeCola, the sanctuary’s superintendent.

    It is, he said, part of the “blue economy,” producing a significant amount of economic activity for Provincetown and other coastal communities.

    The sanctuary designation “doesn’t mean it’s hands-off and no one can go in there,” said Runfola. “We have marine transportation, whale watching, recreational fishing and boating, commercial fishing, science, research, conservation — you name it. It’s happening out there.”

    As a premier whale-watching destination, Stellwagen Bank gets consistent tourist traffic. So, one priority for NOAA is to bring the experience of the place to people on land. In partnership with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NOAA recently took 360-degree images of a number of the sanctuary’s shipwrecks and is putting together “virtual dives” to allow non-divers to experience these sites for themselves.

    NOAA is also working on a project to find descendants of those who died in the sinking of the Steamship Portland — known as the “Titanic of New England” — in order to show them images of the wreck and collect family stories.

    Those efforts will, Runfola hopes, help people connect to Stellwagen Bank emotionally. Without that, she said, “it’s really hard for them to want to get to learn more, to get involved, and to want to protect the resources.”

    The proposed site for the visitor center is near the pier’s whale-watching charters, so it can give people a chance to learn about the marine ecosystem before seeing it for themselves. The plan is for the visitor center to serve as a community space. Architects have included multipurpose performance and exhibition spaces in their initial mockups.
    “It’s a great opportunity for Provincetown to have another space that it can utilize for its own programs and activities,” said Provincetown Town Planner Thaddeus Soule. “It’s also an opportunity to refresh our outdated comfort stations.”

    Two proposed options for the future site of the marine sanctuary’s visitor center.

    In fact, the need to update the public restrooms near MacMillan Pier was one of the factors that got the project off the ground. When updating the restrooms was proposed a few years ago, CCS and NOAA saw an opportunity.

    On Oct. 28, representatives from NOAA, CCS, the town, and architectural firm Oudens Ello held a forum on the proposed site. Community members had suggestions, including making room for green space onsite, having multi-use rooms for rotating exhibits, and adding classrooms for schools to use. The project partners will be hosting a webinar after Thanksgiving, though the date for it remains to be set.

    “We’re in the fact-gathering mode now, and we’re excited to figure out the feedback,” said Conrad Ello, founding principal at Oudens Ello. Designers will be considering public feedback through the rest of this month. “This project is so much about the public and for the public,” he said, adding, “Provincetown is a community that seems to have a lot of engagement.”

    Bank on It

    By

    The Town of Provincetown is inviting public comment on designs for a new Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center on Wednesday, October 28th, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will take place at the site of the proposed center, on Ryder Street Extension, adjacent to MacMillan Pier parking lot. Get the details at coastalstudies.org/sbnmsvc.

     

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