84 



Testimony on the NMFS Biological Assessment of the Potential impact 

 of the MWRA outfall on Endangered Species 



Scott Kraus 

 Associate Scientist 

 New England Aquarium 

 Boston, MA 02110 



John Prescott 

 Executive Director 

 New England Aquarium 

 Boston, MA 02110 



In general, we concur with the NMTS biological opinion that 

 the proposed MWRA outfall may affect, but will not jeopardize the 

 continued existence of any endangered or threatened marine mammal 

 species in Massachusetts Bay. With regard to right whales, we 

 believe that the limited information available is consistent with 

 this opinion, but that there are significant gaps in the data which 

 should be addressed. 



First, the distributional data on all whale species around the 

 outfall site is very poorly known outside the whalewatching season. 

 From November to May (a period when right whales are known to be 

 inhabitants of nearby Cape Cod Bay) , no systematic surveys for 

 marine mammals have been conducted in the outfall area. Therefore, 

 the potential for direct contact between endangered whales and 

 outfall effluent is unknown. Statements indicating "whales are not 

 common in the nearfield of the proposed outfall" (NMFS Bio. 

 Opinion, p. 58) , and "there is a low probability of these species 

 encountering high levels of nutrients and contaminants from the new 

 outfall, because .... the endangered species are not known to 

 frequent this particular area of Massachusetts Bay" (EPA 

 Assessment, p. 4-106) are overstated. Neither the EPA nor NMFS have 

 any scientific basis for making these statements, and the lack of 

 knowledge about winter whale distribution in the outfall area is 

 unsettling. 



Second, the question of cumulative effects is not well 

 addressed. There are other significant problems for right whales 

 in the region including collisions with ships and entanglements in 

 fixed fishing gear. However, the cumulative effects of urban and 

 industrial outfalls along the east coast of the U.S. are not 

 addressed. Because this species travels in the nearshore zone of 

 the U.S., it may be susceptible to cumulative effects on habitat 

 throughout their range. The monitoring recommendations in the 

 Biological Opinion are therefore particularly important in 

 beginning to address this question. 



Finally, one of the reasons that there are so many questions 

 about the right whale and the potential effects of the outfall is 

 that the independent research efforts in this area have been 

 systematically curtailed. Food chain effects, population biology, 

 and human effects questions related to this rarest of whales have 



