December 11, 2017 — NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Narragansett Bay has experienced dramatic changes during the past century, from being a dumping place for sewage and industrial pollutants to a near paradise for recreational swimming and boating. But changes continue to occur, whether from the warming climate, invasive species, fluctuating wastewater effluent, or other factors.
As University of Rhode Island oceanography professor Candace Oviatt recently told an audience of fishermen, scientists and students, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an average day on Narragansett Bay. The bay is always changing. Every year is different. Whether we like it or not, the bay is going to keep changing.”
Oviatt’s comments on Dec. 6 were part of a daylong symposium sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant and aimed at creating a dialogue between fishermen — many of whom are worried that the bay has gotten so clean that there is little food left for fish to eat — and scientists whose research tells a sometimes confusing story of how the bay’s changing ecology might give that erroneous impression.
While most of the scientists claim their research suggests that the biomass of fish and other creatures living in Narragansett Bay has changed little through the years, almost all said the composition of species that call the bay home has changed dramatically.
A weekly fish trawl survey in two locations in the bay conducted since 1959 illustrates those changes. According to Jeremy Collie, the URI oceanography professor who directs the trawl, in the early years of the survey most of the species collected in the nets were fish and invertebrates that live on or near the bottom, such as lobster, winter flounder, tautog, cunner and hake. Those species also happen to prefer cooler water.
In recent years, the species that prefer warmer waters and that live higher in the water column have dominated the trawl surveys, including butterfish, scup and squid.