GREEN NEWS
A blue heron perches on the floating wetland
Hope Floats National Aquarium floating island project shows positive results On April 26, the National Aquarium joined Baltimore's Waterfront Partnership, Biohabitats, the Living Classrooms Foundation, Blue Water Baltimore, and the Irvine Nature Center to launch 2,000 square feet of floating wetlands into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The islands are part of the Healthy Harbor Initiative, which is designed to create a swimmable, fishable harbor by 2020.
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his is the second phase of a pilot project the National Aquarium embarked on two years ago with the University of Maryland. When the first islands were installed in August 2010, Laura Bankey, the Aquarium’s director of Conservation, was optimistic: “Floating islands could reinvigorate harbor water. They will provide food and habitat for wildlife, while absorbing the excess nutrients in the harbor that can cause oxygen-depleting algal blooms,” she said. “If the islands have a positive effect on harbor habitat, we may install more. But the first step is evaluating the good environmental science that will come out of this pilot project.” Since then, the team has been monitoring the ecological services of the island by JOIN US FOR A CONSERVATION EVENT! Check aqua.org/care for dates.
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WATERMARKS | SUMMER 2012
“Improving the ecology of the harbor is so important to those who live and visit here…” —Laura Bankey
looking at nutrient uptake by the plants and colonization by aquatic organisms, and the science Bankey counted on has shown positive progress. “The plants growing on the original wetlands have been successful in removing excess nutrients from the water, which is one of the biggest challenges involved in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay,” explains Bankey. “With the additional floating wetlands, we’ll be able to measure their benefits more broadly and further improve water quality in our city.” Did you know that the area that is now Baltimore City was once a thriving tidal marsh? If you could see below the
surface of the Inner Harbor water, you would see an abundance of aquatic life, from bluefish and blue crabs to dozens of other species. They survive there despite the extremely poor water quality in the harbor. The floating island concept is an attempt to bring back some of the benefits of the living, vibrant wetlands that once were here and provided for the creatures that live in the harbor. “Improving the ecology of the harbor is so important to those who live and visit here, and the National Aquarium is honored to be part of the team that is offering a naturalistic solution. We believe it has real visual appeal and will also produce vital environmental data about the impact of floating islands on water quality,” concludes Bankey. The National Aquarium will continue collecting data to evaluate the islands’ effects on water quality, and the Maryland Department of the Environment (which cleared the original island for installation) will remain closely related to the project as it continues to mature.