Stellwagen Bank Final EIS and Management Plan 



Page 55 



Cruise ships currently comprise only a small part 

 of vessel traffic using the Port of Boston, averaging 

 about 30 visits per year. However, given the 

 presence of a new state-of-the-art terminal (Black 

 Falcon Cruise Terminal on the Reserved Channel), 

 the Port could support significant expansion in this 

 area. The Massachusetts Port Authority 



(Massport), Maritime Department has suggested 

 that the numbers of cruise ships visiting Boston 

 could be increased considerably with appropriate 

 promotion of the Port as a point of departure for 

 cruises to other ports to the north, particularly 

 maritime Canada; and as a base for "cruises to 

 nowhere" (Anne Aylward, Maritime Division, 

 Massport, pers. coram., May 1990). A possible 

 seagoing ferry link to HaUfax or some other Nova 

 Scotia port has also been discussed. 



Given the dominance of petroleum products as 

 cargo of vessels passing over Stellwagen Bank, the 

 principal threat, at least theoretically, is oil spills. 

 Because the Bank, as a geologic feature, occiu-s at 

 much greater depths than safe navigational depths 

 for all vessels that might pass over it, spills caused 

 by grounding are not an issue. With the Vessel 

 Traffic Separation System having been in place and 

 operational for a number of years, the possibility of 

 oil spills resulting from vessel collisions is very 

 minimal. 



The Coast Guard maintains at least two different 

 historical oil spill data bases. The Coast Guard 

 Management Information Branch in Washington has 

 identified, for an area which includes the shipping 

 lanes across Stellwagen Bank (but not the entirety 

 of the study area), seven oil discharge incidents for 

 the years 1988 and 1989. All reports involved 

 fishing vessels, and only two yielded observable 

 discharges, totalling approximately 52 gallons. The 

 USCG Marine Safety Office in Boston has 

 identified six incidents in the past 10 years, within 

 an area somewhat larger than the study area, 

 involving no observable discharges. 



To estimate the possibiUty of vessel collisions 

 causing oil spills, vessel accident records, maintained 

 by the Coast Guard Marine Safety Evaluation 

 Branch in Washington, were consulted. For the 

 period 1984-1988, there were a total of 105 so-called 

 "vessel casualties" reported for the study area. Of 



this total, nearly all reports (98) involved fishing 

 vessels; five were pleasure or passenger vessels; and 

 two involved commercial vessels (tugs). Only two 

 incidents were reported as collisions, both involving 

 fishing boats. Given the volume of ship traffic 

 crossing the Bank, these historic data indicate that 

 the chance of a vessel collision on the Bank appears 

 to be quite remote. The prospects of a significant 

 oil spUl are even less. 



Chronic discharges of oil from tank washing and 

 ballast discharge is also a potential soiu^ce of 

 contamination. Grossling (1976) has suggested that, 

 where large numbers of petroleum tankers and 

 barges are present, such discharges can be a 

 significant source of oil in the marine environment. 

 However, it is not thought that tank washings or 

 ballast discharges occur in the vicinity of Stellwagen 

 Bank (Robert Calder, Executive Director, Boston 

 Shipping Association, pers. comm.. May 1*390). 

 Coast Guard Oil Regulations (33 CFR L57.37) 

 prohibit the discharge of an "oily mixture" (i.e., 

 mixture of oil and water from tank washing and/or 

 ballasting) unless the vessel is at least 50 nautical 

 miles from the nearest land. 



"Lightering", described as the ship-to-ship 

 transfer of petroleum products, is an additional 

 potential source of contamination. This activity is 

 regulated under the authority of the Federal Water 

 Pollution Control Act, as amended by the Clean 

 Water Act of 1977 (33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seg.). 

 Relevant sections of the Act have recently been 

 amended by the Oil Pollution Control Act of 1990 

 (33 CFR § 2701). Lightering is conducted to 

 transfer petroleum products onto smaller, shallower 

 draft vessels which are able to enter harbors not 

 able to accommodate larger commercial vessels. 

 This activity occurs within Boston Harbor, and in 

 Broad Sound, immediately east of Deer Island, near 

 the entrance to the Harbor. When lightering is 

 scheduled to occur within the "anchorage" (the 

 major deep draft area within Boston Harbor), ship 

 operators are required to provide four hours' notice 

 to the U.S. Coast Guard. 



Lightering is not known to occur on a routine 

 basis within the area of Stellwagen Bank. (LCDR 

 George Matthews, Marine Safety Office USCG, 

 Boston, MA, pers. comm., June 13, 1991). 



