Stellwagen Bank Final EIS and Management Plan 



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encompass all of the Massachusetts coast except for 

 the area between Marshfield and Lynn). A recent 

 amendment to the Ocean Sanctuaries Act adds a 

 variance procedure to allow increases in discharge 

 volumes from existing wastewater treatment plants 

 if a strict set of criteria are successfully met. 



10. Submerged Pipelines and Cables 



No submerged electrical cables or pipelines are 

 known to exist on or adjacent to Stellwagen Bank. 

 Additionally, no international telephone cables exist 

 or are contemplated for the Stellwagen Bank area 

 (Jeff Ewald, AT&T, pers. comm.. May 1990). 

 NOAA nautical charts indicate the presence of a 

 "submerged cable" passing immediately to the south 

 of the Bank, which has been identified as an 

 inactive telegraph cable (Jeff Ewald, pers. comm.. 

 May 1990). 



Very speculative and preliminary information is 

 available regarding proposals for the construction of 

 pipelines or the installation of submarine cables on 

 or adjacent to Stellwagen Bank. Only one instance 

 has been found where the possibility of constructing 

 a pipeline across the Bank was discussed. 

 Discussions surrounded an OCS lease sale for the 

 northern portions of Georges Bank (P.Hughes, 

 MCZM OCS Coordinator, personal communication. 

 May 1990). If the volume of oil discovered had 

 been of sufficient quantity, a direct pipeline to the 

 Boston area would have been proposed, most likely 

 along an alignment which could traverse the Bank. 



In terms of submarine cables, the MCZM Office 

 was contacted two to three years ago regarding the 

 possibility of installing an electrical transmission 

 cable from Nova Scotia to the Boston area, 

 presumably as a part of planning for the Fundy tidal 

 power project (Jan Smith, MCZM Water Ouality 

 Planner, pers. comm.. May 1990). Additionally, in 

 response to the DEIS/MP on this Sanctuary, 

 reference has been made to a tentatively proposed 

 submarine cable, known as the Bluenose Project, 

 which would transmit "significant amounts of power 

 and energy between Nova Scotia and the Pilgrim 

 Nuclear Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts." (R. 

 Gillis, Esq., April 1991). Nova Scotia Power also 

 has indicated that preliminary discussions have been 

 conducted with "a number of interests in 



Massachusetts" regarding the installation of a 

 submarine cable across Stellwagen Bank for the 

 purpose of electricity transmission." (R. Smith, 

 Nova Scotia Power, April 1991). Almost all 

 possible alignments for submarine cables would 

 intersect with the Stellwagen Bank feature. 



Although the laying of submarine cables is 

 thought to be reasonably benign environmentally, 

 the presence of a cable in an active fishing area 

 could cause problems with damage to both the 

 cable and fishing gear. Some have speculated that 

 cables on the sea bottom could create obstacles to 

 the movement of bottom -dwelling organisms 

 (Darnell, 1976). The trench and fill required for 

 burying cables and pipelines could disturb sensitive 

 fish spawning areas; and the activity of the 

 installation equipment could disturb marine 

 mammals and seabirds. Excavation activity can also 

 disturb or destroy marine archaeologicjd sites. 



The most significant problem with pipelines, and 

 with electrical transmission cables which use 

 circulating oil for cooling, is the possibility of leaks 

 causing contamination of the surroimding waters. 



11. Mariculture 



Given the open-ocean environment of Stellwagen 

 Bank, the only form of commercial fish culture (or 

 mariculture) operation likely to be sited on or 

 adjacent to the Bank would be a fmfish pen or 

 cage-culture operation. ("Aquaculture" operations 

 involve freshwater areas.) These are generally 

 "grow-out" operations, where fish smolts are held in 

 pens, usually fed from the surface and medicated 

 with antibiotics to control diseases, and harvested 

 when they reach marketable size. 



Most existing operations at other locations 

 involve the culture of salmonids (principally Atlantic 

 salmon); however, a number of experimental 

 attempts are being proposed to expand the effort to 

 species such as cod, haddock, striped bass and 

 hahbut (C. Mantzaris, NMFS, pers. comm., August 

 1991). As of 1989, there were 37 commercial 

 mariculture leases in New England (18 in 

 operation), with most located on the coast of Maine 

 (Bettencourt and Anderson, 1990). 



