English 280: The Journalistic Essay

By Emily Donnelly

Michael Woodbury casts his rod across the surface of Monponsett Pond in Halifax, Massachusetts.  It’s a cool September morning, and the only other signs of life are the duo of swans gliding peacefully through the water.  He prefers to fish early in the morning, dawn is best.  “Got `em,” he exclaims, as he hooks the rod and frantically begins reeling.  Within half a minute he is pulling up a largemouth bass.  He gently unhooks it and smiles. “About average size for the lake,” he says, referring to the size of the two and a half pound fish.  His grip on the bass’ mouth is gentle yet firm, so as not to injure the fish or cause it any extra stress.  His smile quickly fades as he inspects the condition of the fish.  An open sore can be immediately recognized as well as the muddy-brown coloration of the scales.  This fish is not healthy but unfortunately is common for this pond.

Shaking his head, he kneels over the side of his boat and releases the fish back into the water.  “Thank you!” he says as he always does when releasing his catch.  Any day he gets to spend on the water is ideal for the local cranberry bog foreman. The twenty seven year old fishing enthusiast makes this his mantra, ‘Catch and release, zero limit.”  Especially when it comes to Monponsett, since having lived on the pond his entire life, he has watched its condition drastically deteriorate.

“It really is a tragedy,” he states. “If I had my way, I would shut the pond off from all boat traffic and recreational use for a few years.  The fish need to regenerate, they’re too stressed and the water is just nasty.”

But this is not how Monponsett is run.  The twin lakes as they are known are really just one lake connected underneath a paved roadway.  Each lake averages about 250 acres wide and the deepest bottom around thirteen feet.  As the population continues to build in Halifax and the surrounding south shore towns, it seems that the number of people using the lake during the warm months is increasing.  Pollution is an issue in the pond.  Trash splashes along the shorelines, green algae covers entire sections of the pond, and toxic runoff mixes with the water during rainy periods.  But the pond continues to be the biggest attraction in town during the summer.  After all it is public and easily accessible to boaters and fisherman alike.

Driving down route 58 will eventually bring one in between the East and West lakes.  In the height of the summer, fishermen can almost always be spotted along the shore line, many times with their kids, enjoying a day of bass fishing. The wake on the pond during the summer is far from flat.  Jet skis crowd the pond, zipping back and forth creating havoc on the surface.  Along the shores of both the East and West lakes, houses sit, many with boat ramps and tied up rowboats.  Some of the houses are accompanied by bright green lawns, surely due to proper care and fertilization.  However when it rains, this fertilizer is apt to run down toward the water and fertilize what is now considered the arch nemesis of the pond—algae.

Fertilizer runoff is one of the main causes of what Charlie Seelig calls an “algae bloom.”  Seelig has been on the Halifax board of selectmen for the past twelve years and believes it is the algae which is the main source of pollution to Monponsett.  He says that the fertilizer runoff from both houses and even perhaps cranberry bogs is causing the already high levels of phosphorus in the water to chemically bind with aluminum traces and create the perfect conditions for an algae bloom.  It seems as though algae would be natural for a body of water, after all it a source of shelter and bedding for the fish.

However, according to Seelig, the problem is that there is too much algae and when it breaks down it becomes toxic to both wildlife as well as people.

“This is why at the end of this past summer we strongly advised people to avoid swimming in the West lake which was particularly bad,” he continued to say.  And while swimmers were not ticketed or apprehended by any means, the message was clear—the town of Halifax did not recommend swimming in Monponsett.

Seelig says there are two options to deal with the algae issue, both of which are only temporary solutions.  The first would be to chemically treat the water with herbicides, which according to the Halifax Board of Health is not bacteria-ridden.  However, the hindrance in making this happen is the cost.

“It would cost millions to do this,” began Seelig, “and it’s still only a temporary fix.”  It is also something that the state would have to approve of and fund.  The other and more feasible option is to dredge the pond.  This is what is meant by the “Weed Eradication Program” that Halifax has set up.  Basically, people go in and remove as much of the algae as possible.  However this is only a solution for a number of years until the algae blooms again.

“But when it’s a matter of 20 to 30 thousand versus millions, we really didn’t have much of a choice.”  And that is exactly what the town did back in the early nineties and at the end of this past summer.  Mike Woodbury remembers being a kid, watching the first weed eradication take place

“It was like they came in with a huge construction truck and scooped out the algae into the bed, but along with it went hundreds of fish, probably dumped into some landfill somewhere,” claims Woodbury.  “It was heartbreaking really, the fish make that algae their home, they lay their eggs in it and when threatened they naturally protect their eggs.”

While the town of Halifax has struggled to keep its pond clean, the pond’s residents (meaning the fish) have suffered.  It’s a tough situation because both man and fish have a right to the pond.  Yet the overwhelming population surrounding the pond is taking its toll on the wildlife.  Nonetheless, Monponsett pond is open for public boating, swimming, and fishing.  And with ice fishing season right around the corner, we shall see if the outdoorsmen can keep away.