Karl,
One of the biggest problems facing our salt ponds and estuaries (our's being everyone not So.Co and Rhody) is Nitrogen, and to a much lesser degree probably Phosforous as well... Greenwich Bay fish kill last year... Lack of eel grass or less than in the past in the ponds/N Bay as a whole...
Likely all related to an increase in Nitrogen...
Run off is a major concern, more impervious surfaces (parking lots, driveways, roads etc) increases run off, thats common sense. Less obvious to most people is the contamination from Sewers. With increased development there is increased pressure on the ecosystem.... Go look in the ground around here, below the soils is generally sandy and or gravelly (deposits courtesy of the glaciers retreating) when you put a lot of septic systems in this sediment... woosh.. it is into the ground water and out into the saltponds/estuaries... and not just septic systems; go look at the green grass of the golf courses in Winnapaug, or on Pleasant Bay for that matter... lots of N coming in from fertilizer...
You're right, fix the bait fix the fish... but on a bigger scale, fix the ecosystem, and help fix the fish.....
As the green people say; think globally act locally... this is very true.....
Now enough waxing poetic; back to work!!!
