Ecotourism part of bay conservation

SEAL OF AUTHENTICITY: Children aboard the motor vessel Alletta Morris in March 2013 observe harbor seals resting on rocks in Newport Harbor during a seal watch tour by Save The Bay. / COURTESY SAVE THE BAY
SEAL OF AUTHENTICITY: Children aboard the motor vessel Alletta Morris in March 2013 observe harbor seals resting on rocks in Newport Harbor during a seal watch tour by Save The Bay. / COURTESY SAVE THE BAY

Save The Bay seal watches from Westerly and Newport in Narragansett Bay have been connecting environmentally conscious tourists and residents to this fragile natural area for the past 12 years.
“There’s demand for it: People really respond and appreciate what we offer,” Executive Director Jonathan Stone told Providence Business News.
The seal watches, a lighthouse tour, Prudence Island tour, and new this year, a marine science tour, comprise the ecotourism offerings that have grown out of robust educational programming at the nonprofit, Stone said.
Save The Bay’s ecotourism programs represent a sliver of the nonprofit’s approximately $3.5 million annual revenue – about $150,000 in 2013, says Stone – but have grown by 20 percent a year over the past five years. The educational programming, by comparison, represents about 40 percent of revenue, he said.
“Much of our emphasis in terms of advocacy is to clean up pollution that undermines the health of the bay,” Stone said. “It’s critically important that voters, when they are asked to consider [public] investments, understand that connection. The ecotourism programs allow us to make that connection.”
Rhode Island residents and voters are asked often to consider investments in clean water, Stone added. There are 19 wastewater treatment plants in the state and sewer fees and other costs associated with them, he said.
A self-described nature-conscious “tree hugger,” Lisa Kahn, 59, of Coventry, has taken two seal-watch tours and a lighthouse tour since becoming a member of Save The Bay three years ago. In March she enjoyed watching her 7-year-old grandson get excited eyeing the seals. She has since taken on a volunteer internship in the organization’s communication office, she said. The tours, like the nonprofit itself, “echo” Kahn’s concerns about nature, she said.
“They get people out on the water,” Kahn explained. “They do a great job of educating the public. They have the captain or mate explain everything. They have binoculars so you can get up close and personal. They make it very easy to learn about the bay.”
Bridget Kubis Prescott, director of education, said the first 45-foot, aluminum education vessel, The Alletta Morris, was introduced 12 years ago. Save The Bay recently added a second, 46-foot fiberglass vessel, The Elizabeth Morris, this past fall, she said.
“It doubled our capacity to take people out,” she noted. “It wasn’t a spur of the moment purchase. A lot of planning went into it to see if there was a need and if we could fill those boats.”
Mark Brodeur, Rhode Island’s director of tourism, says Save The Bay is a leading proponent of ecotourism in the state, along with the Audubon Society of Rhode Island Environmental Education Center in Bristol and the Arlington, Va.-based Nature Conservancy’s Rhode Island office in Providence.
“We have a great infrastructure for quality ecotourism in the state because we have these types of partners,” said Brodeur. “We have been leaders when it comes to recapturing our waterways here in Rhode Island and it’s a real example around the world, particularly for countries in Asia, which are struggling with water pollution.”
So how polluted is the bay?
“We’ve made great progress in Rhode Island in cleaning up toxic and industrial pollution and bacterial pollution from wastewater-treatment plants,” said Stone, though too much nitrogen feeds algae bloom and robs the water and its inhabitants of precious oxygen. Ultimately, money raised from ecotourism goes to underwrite Save The Bay’s school marine science programs. The tours have become so popular, Stone expects the program to double in size over the next five years.
As ventures meant to educate the general public, without the educational standards provided to school children for educational tours, eco-tours are steeped in relevant information about the conservation of the bay. The information shared on the tours is directly related to Save The Bay’s mission as an environmental watchdog and advocacy group.
“What makes an excursion really valuable to our customers is in fact the staff, the people onboard the boat, trained environmental scientists who understand and know the ecology of the bay and are really good in describing and observing for our passengers indicators of health in the bay. That’s what we’re known for,” Stone said.
On the lighthouse tours, for instance, the public is told how lighthouses are part of the history of the bay, Stone said.
“You cannot separate environmental advocacy and human history,” Stone said. “They’re one and the same. They’re intertwined. What we do in our programs, which makes them unique, is to make the connection between commerce and environmental health – the effect of ship traffic on public access and environmental conditions in the bay.”
The U.S. Navy, for instance, was both a source of pollution and economic vitality for the region, he said.
Headquarters for Save The Bay is at Fields Point in Providence. Tours operate out of three locations: Newport, Providence and Westerly. •

No posts to display