"A Year In The Life Of Narragansett Bay" is an independent project of my own design, comprising a series of stories that will follow the seasonal cycles, incorporating science, natural history, and cultural aspects of human interaction with the Bay and its watershed. The final product will include text, photos, and hopefully some online video.
This is a work in progress, but here is a look at my current vision for the project (as of Winter 2004): I will write six seasonal stories about the Bay:
February: Deep winter
April: Reawakening
June: Early Summer
August: Summer peaks
October: The turning season
December: The cycle begins again
Topics will include, for example: the physical flows of the currents in and out of the Bay, movements of fish and wildlife, the spring herring run, the human-Bay nutrient connection (our diets affect the effluent, which affects the Bay water quality), the Bay as a resource (fisheries, aquaculture, shipping, recreation), habitat restoration (eelgrass and salt-marsh projects), and more. People and their relationship to the Bay will be central to each story, but I will also try to convey the complexities and mystery of the life within the Bay that is hidden beneath the surface.
Sidebars will add a more personal and lighthearted touch, or focus on select scientific topics. For example: buying a first boat, learning to scuba dive; the watershed and the rivers, studying the Bay (how do we know what we know).
Boxes will briefly highlight individual topics of interest, for example: Clingstone (the myths and the true story of the Bay's most recognizable waterfront home), Asian crabs (an invasive species).
My goals for the project are to awaken the reader's curiousity about their Bay, to help establish an emotional connection between people and their environment, and to educate the reader about how the Bay works and what effects their choices have on the life within it.
Thanks for visiting. Updated January 2004.