- [Michelle] Tonight, losing lobsters in the waters off of Southern New England.

- It's tough work and there's easier ways to make money nowadays.

- [Pamela] Then what happens when climate change threatens Rhode Island's history?

- You can't run away from it.

The truth is that a lot of historic properties are in extremely vulnerable places.

- [Michelle] And RIDOT's Peter Alviti responds to our latest Washington Bridge investigation with Ted Nesi.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) Good evening and welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We begin with climate change and how it affects our state in a myriad of ways.

Our first two stories are part of our Green Seeker series, and we are pleased to share that both of these stories have been nominated for New England Emmy Awards.

- First stop, global warming's Effect on local waters.

The warming ocean temperatures are drastically changing ecosystems.

As we first reported in June of 2024, this all has serious implications for marine life in Southern New England, including a summer indulgence.

Tonight we explore why we're losing lobsters off the Rhode Island coast.

- My grandfather was a lobsterman, so he would always go out and he would be on the boat catching the lobsters during the day and then bring it into the restaurant.

Attached to the restaurant was also a fish market, so he'd sell the lobsters at the fish market and they'd cook them up in the kitchen.

- [Michelle] Lobsters are more than a summer staple for 25-year-old, Ebben Howarth.

Fishing for them is a core memory from his childhood on Block Island, 12 miles from the Rhode Island mainland.

These days, it's also his way of life.

Howarth says he had an epiphany several years ago.

If he didn't get into lobstering, it was only a matter of time before there'd be no more commercial lobstermen on the island.

- I felt this pull to just go out and try and see if it was something that spoke to me and something that I enjoyed doing.

And when I went out there, it was really, really special.

It was really, really good quality time with my grandfather.

And I just like being on the water.

I like the work itself.

It's exciting, it's rewarding.

(water splashes) - Howarth caught no one in his family by surprise when he decided to become a commercial lobsterman seven years ago.

When you first told your family that you wanted to be a lobsterman, did anyone say, "Ebben, you're crazy, don't do it"?

- No, it was gradual too, but I didn't ever receive that.

They were always really, really into it.

- [Michelle] It's a career fewer people are choosing.

In 2006, there were more than 300 commercial lobstermen in Rhode Island.

Last year, there were 97.

- It's tough work and there's easier ways to make money nowadays.

And I think that if people are given the option, then they'll probably go for an easier, more safe, more consistent way of life.

- But you didn't.

- No, I didn't.

- [Michelle] He knows these traps won't catch anywhere near the amount of lobsters his grandfather harvested on these same waters.

- When he started fishing in, I wanna say it was probably the '50s and early '60s, he said that they would catch anywhere from five to tenfolds what I would catch, and also on a much faster rate too.

(contemplative music) - [Michelle] In 2000, lobstermen in Rhode Island brought almost 7 million pounds of lobster to shore.

Last year, they landed just over 1 million pounds.

Scientists say climate change is depleting Rhode Island's lobster population.

Since 1960, Narragansett Bay has warmed three degrees Fahrenheit.

- Lobsters have a fairly narrow preferred temperature range from about 54 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit.

- [Michelle] Jeremy Collie has been studying lobsters for decades.

He's a professor at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography.

He says when lobsters are in warmer waters, they exert more energy and metabolism, which leaves them with less energy to grow and reproduce.

- If the water's colder than 50 degrees or warmer than 68 degrees, they'll try to avoid those temperatures because their survival would be diminished if they stayed in water that was either that cold or that warm.

- How would you describe the lobster population in Southern New England now compared to, say, five, 10 years ago?

- The population has depleted.

- [Michelle] The lobster industry in Rhode Island has had its share of ebbs and flows.

Professor Jeremy Collie oversees a weekly trawl survey at the University of Rhode Island which goes back decades.

It shows the population of lobsters in Narraganset Bay peaked in the mid-'90s.

These days, Collie says it's at historically low levels.

- I think ultimately with climate change, with increased temperatures, this area may become unsuitable habitat for lobsters.

So we've really, in that case, lose.

We're kind of at the southern end of the distribution, and so there's always a risk that we're going to lose that population altogether.

- [Michelle] It typically takes five to seven years before a lobster is big enough to be harvested but Collie says many are dying long before.

Young lobsters look like small insects, which make for great prey.

- The predators are mainly other fish species.

- [Michelle] John Grant has been a lobsterman on Block Island for more than 40 years.

He says more fishermen are finding baby lobsters in the stomachs of their predators.

- And I see it from other guys who catch the scup and the sea bass.

And they'll be fileting, "Hey, look, there's baby lobster here," you know?

And then they always like to tell us that.

And now, there's seals.

I mean, we never used to see a seal here past the end of April or early May.

And now they're here all year round.

And what are they eating?

- [Michelle] Grant sells lobsters from his boat on the old harbor dock.

He says the atmosphere has changed as fewer lobsters have been found.

- There's no fights on the dock anymore, and so much less stress.

That part of it is great.

- This is where I store the lobsters in between selling them from the docks or if we use them for our catering events.

- [Michelle] Despite that silver lining, those who are catching lobsters in the Ocean State face plenty of challenges, including decades of pulling up lobsters infected with shell disease.

It's an infection on the animals outer shell, - And that's actually a bacteria that infects the shell.

And in extreme cases, it can kind of start to kill them and make them a little bit more lethargic and create infection beneath the shell.

- [Michelle] Research shows warmer water temperatures have been correlated with higher rates of shell disease.

- And the problem with shell disease is that you get a lower price per pound for lobsters.

For example, if I were to sell this one per pound, it would probably fetch maybe $5 or so, where this one could fetch 10 or $11.

- Oh, wow, big difference.

- Yeah.

- [Michelle] The disease leaves lobsters with circular lesions, but Howarth says it does not affect the taste of the lobster meat or cause harm to those who eat it.

- What I've incorporated into my business model is buying the shell disease or picking the shell disease that I catch, sourcing it from other local fishermen, and then selling lobster meat prepackaged by the pound.

It's kind of a workaround that I've come up with to be able to still use all the shell disease that I'm pulling in.

- Howarth typically spends two days a week fishing.

When he's not on the boat, he's running his business, Sediment, a sea-to-table catering business with his fiance Maddie Murphy.

- So we take the lobster that I was catching.

We team up with my mother who is a produce farmer.

Steal kale from her garden, herb from her garden, and just bring a simple lobster bake to your table, pack everything in, pack everything out, take the hassle out of what eating lobster is for a lot of people, is the mess.

- Where do you see the future of the lobster industry in Rhode Island heading five years from now?

- I see it the way it's been.

It's just a few guys doing it, and I don't see it really...

I don't really think it can get much smaller than what it is, and I don't expect it to get any bigger than what it is right now.

- [Michelle] Both Grant and Howarth collect research on lobsters for the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, including how many have shell disease and the severity of it.

They receive a stipend for their work.

Howarth says he hopes the information helps shed light on how marine life is changing around Rhode Island, where he says he's living his dream.

- I love that I get to be on the water.

I love that I get to connect with other people and the local food industry.

And it's just a really good feeling seeing that process through.

It's really, really gratifying.

I hope that in five years, I'm still doing that.

- Up next, how climate change is taking a toll on historic treasures.

In danger from storm surges are landmarks from the Statue of Liberty in New York to much of Boston's Cradle of Liberty to a quarter of National Park Service buildings.

And as we first reported in 2024, here in Rhode Island, severe weather is encroaching on some of the state's most iconic structures.

Tonight, we again explore the continuing efforts to better understand the problem and stem the tide of destruction.

Many of the country's historic landmarks are in peril.

According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, sea level rise is causing flooding and coastal erosion.

At the core is climate change, extreme weather such as hurricanes and nor'easters increasing in frequency and severity.

- We're on this point on Aquidneck Island.

It was always called Rough Point, and that's the reason why the house's name is Rough Point.

But it is an extremely vulnerable position because of storms.

- [Pamela] Storms resulting in tough times at Rough Point.

Frankie Vagnone is president of the Newport Restoration Foundation, stewards of this 1890s estate.

It's a gilded age summer cottage, originally a home of Vanderbilts and later famed tobacco heiress, Doris Duke.

It's filled with riches such as Van Dyck portraits and a Tiffany silver swan centerpiece.

But the Bellevue Avenue Mansion and the cultural heritage at holes are all at risk.

- Now what we have are climate change issues, which are increasing the storm intensity, the winds, normal wear and tear and weathering of this house has been kind of exponentially multiplied.

So we're getting winds at such level that the sea water's being pushed through the stonewall, through the mortar, through the interior of the wall, through the plaster.

- [Pamela] It's evident in the elegant music room where Doris Duke's debutante ball was once held.

Alyssa Lozupone is director of preservation.

- What you're seeing on the walls is hand-painted Chinese wallpaper.

And this was one of the primary areas where we started to see water infiltration.

We started seeing damage on the wallpaper itself.

So in area, we actually removed a panel of the wallpaper.

- [Pamela] That wallpaper is currently being conserved.

- While it was offsite, we opened up the wall and thought this is a great opportunity to start exploring what's happening behind the wallpaper.

- And what's happening?

- Cracked granite and brownstone.

Things like that are all things that let water into the building, and then it just finds its way into the finishes and all these beautiful features that you see.

- [Pamela] Repairing the masonry and replacing the roof is phase one of rough point's ongoing restoration.

Phase two will focus on the solarium where there is a clear, fragile line between outdoors and indoors.

- This was meant to be a space where you could enjoy the view, and now we're seeing some of the damage that the proximity to the water is doing to the building.

- [Pamela] Plaster is falling, so furniture is covered.

The bronze doors and windows need repair.

- How do we restore these and how do we continue to protect them moving forward from increased wind and increased salt water?

- [Pamela] To answer that, the nonprofit is doing something unusual.

It's pulling back the curtain, becoming transparent about climate change calamities.

Signage throughout Rough point is prominent.

They're being very forthright about this.

- [Frankie] Yeah, absolutely.

- And why is that so important?

- Our visitors want to know the truth.

They wanna know the reality of preservation.

So instead of, for instance, covering up falling plaster with a plastic sheet, I've suggested we take the plastic sheet down.

We interpret it.

We show our visitors that these are the real effects that are happening on our building.

And, of course, it's not just our building.

So it's really pushing the margins of where preservationists and museum thinkers are going.

And climate change is happening to us, and these things need to be discussed.

- [Pamela] Some of that discussion is happening through the Restoration Foundation's global initiative called Keeping History Above Water.

There are international conferences with experts aimed at balancing preservation goals with the reality of rising tides.

- Traditionally, you always wanna replace something that's rotted with the same material.

Well, today we're dealing with issues where some of those materials may be extinct, they may be in rainforests.

They may not actually be able to withstand the new climate changes, so you need to start thinking about new technologies.

You can't run away from it.

Because the truth is, that a lot of historic properties are in extremely vulnerable places.

- [Pamela] For example, hunter House here in the point neighborhood of Newport sits just a dozen feet away from Narraganset Bay, and it is a significant structure.

- It started the preservation movement in Newport, the city, as well as the county.

And that begins in the 1940s.

- [Pamela] Leslie Jones is curator and director of Museum Affairs for the Preservation Society of Newport County.

That organization saved the house once from demolition and now is trying to save it from wreckage by climate change.

Built in 1748, it is a national historic landmark, boasting some of the finest examples of Georgian architecture, with hand-hewn paneling and angelic details.

And that's not all.

It sheltered some famous allies during the Revolutionary War.

- It was home to Admiral De Ternay who led the French Navy, so he could see out the windows and his fleet and the harbor.

And with that, it played a significant role in our fight for independence.

The Gazette Francoise, which was the first French language newspaper printed in the colonies, was printed in this house.

- [Pamela] Nearly 250 years later, that history could be vanquished.

While seaside structures are traditionally prone to water damage, climate change is hastening the deterioration.

What's been happening here at Hunter House.

- A lot, actually, and it's affected our whole approach to how we care for the building.

So this is called efflorescence, and it's a salt deposit.

- So all of this white is salt from the ocean?

- It's salt.

Well, it's salt coming through the salty air, through the salt water that actually rises up through the water table when flooding does happen in the basement.

- [Pamela] The subterranean cellar has been specifically designed so water can flow through, with special pumping pipes on chipped stone and dehumidifiers.

Jones says they've always had a hurricane plan.

It has now morphed into a resiliency plan.

- Because it can happen at any time of the year, whether it's flooding or high winds or any kind of moisture infiltration too.

I lead the efforts for the evacuation of Hunter House when necessary.

And that's a collaborative effort that is rehearsed, it is annually reviewed, and it's essentially the process of moving things out of this house into a secure location.

- [Pamela] However, Jones says many of the moves are just temporary mitigation.

She says it's just a matter of time until more drastic measures may be taken, such as changing the character and context of the home's location.

- Is there any thought of ever putting the house on stilts, moving the house?

- Sure, yeah.

We are looking at the examples that our neighbors are doing.

There are many people in this neighborhood who are elevating their houses.

It's certainly something that our consultants, engineers, and architects have advised could be a potential action for us to take on.

- Does that hurt your heart as someone who's a preservationist to think it's not going to be the way it was originally?

- I think it gives us purpose.

Not sad or scared, but more so, let's be proactive rather than reactive.

Because the whole reason why this house exists is because it has existed through a linear timeline.

It has been lived in by generations of people that have electrified it, installed internal bathrooms and plumbing.

So the house has changed and morphed, but now it's time for us to save it.

- [Pamela] Back at Rough Point, Frankie Vagnone says they are working on another innovation for both tourists and townspeople.

- What we've decided to do is to turn this wing into action centers.

- [Pamela] The action centers will occupy former guest bedrooms on the second floor now under renovation.

The idea is to promote preservation through education.

- This room will hold a large model of Aquidneck Island with projections from the ceiling, which will be talking about climate change, sea level rise.

- [Pamela] He hopes it will transform the museum into a center for school children, the community, and visitors to learn more about the threatened erosion of history.

- You have to ask yourself what the value and relevance of a historic site is to us today.

They're vessels through which you can teach contemporary issues.

Climate change is something that we all have to pay attention to, even in a rarefied house just like this.

We have no choice on the matter.

Just look out the window.

(waves crashing) (winds gushing) - At Rough Point, work is ongoing to create that action center.

Meantime, a host of community workshops are being planned at the Mansion for next year, which is the 10th anniversary of Keeping History Above Water: Strategic Planning for Climate Change Resiliency.

And finally, on tonight's episode of Weekly Insight, Michelle and our contributor, WPRI 12's politics editor, Ted Nesi, explain how Rhode Islanders could be affected by what President Trump describes as his Big Beautiful Bill.

But first, what the head of Rhode Island's Department of Transportation has to say about our investigation into the Washington Bridge.

- Ted, welcome back.

It's good to see you.

I wanted to start with a follow up to an investigative report about the Washington Bridge that I worked on with my colleague Jeremy Bernfeld.

We found that RIDOT, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, may have failed to perform crucial inspections of the Westbound Bridge that could have warned of the bridge's deterioration.

Now, ride RIDOT director, Peter Alviti, makes a monthly appearance on Channel 12, he talks with your colleague, and your wife, we should point out, Kim Kalunian, and she asked Director Alviti to respond to that report.

Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

- I wanna talk to you about a investigative report that just came out earlier this week, Rhode Island Public Radio, The Public's Radio, and Rhode Island PBS.

They found that the DOT could have, and maybe should have, used sort of x-ray technology on the Washington Bridge to find those critical failures before the time that you did.

They said that there are no records that show you did this.

Did the DOT use that technology to inspect the bridge?

- So, I've said many times, Kim, we have a court case pending.

The Attorney General is handling a court case.

We've been in numerous discussions with the attorneys that are handling this court case, and they've advised us not to speak on the case.

And these issues go to the main case.

They have to do with what will be argued in court.

Is it the responsibility of the experts?

It's funny, you should mention x-ray.

You go to a doctor.

Say, you have a symptom.

They determine for you what tests are necessary.

They're the experts.

You don't tell them, "I want an x-ray or I want an MRI."

They tell you, they're supposed to tell you and advise you, "I think you have this, so therefore get an x-ray."

That's the crux of the case at Supreme Court.

We hired private engineering companies as the experts for us.

That's been going on for decades.

And the court case is about that very (indistinct).

- And Ted, as you just heard there, it's been difficult for reporters to get answers and really advance this story because we're constantly hearing Director Alviti, Governor Dan McKee, cite the lawsuit and say, "We can't talk about it because of this."

But as you and I know, it can take years for lawsuits to get adjudicated.

- Yeah, it's been enormously frustrating, Michelle.

And I have to say, the minute they started to talk about litigation here, I cringed because I've been a reporter long enough to know, as soon as you put that cover of litigation over a topic, it's a dodge for all officials.

When reporters are trying to bring some accountability, ask questions, even just understand what happened, we get this constantly, as you know, and as you saw in your report.

It's been very hard.

It was very different, as I've said before, from when the state had the credit union crisis.

And within a few months, the president of Brown had put out a report commissioned by the governor laying out what had happened and what had gone wrong.

We haven't had that here.

- Right, and also you have people who are frustrated and saying, "How can we trust a state and a department to safely manage the building of a new bridge when we still don't know what went wrong with the old bridge?"

- Right, and that I thought was also what made your report very timely.

Because the bridge is suddenly gonna be, you know, front page news again coming up because June 6th is D-Day.

And in fact in that interview with Kim, Director Alviti confirmed again the key administration on June 6th expects to announce the winning bidder to build the new bridge, and then the cost of that new bridge, and the timeline to get it done.

I think that, you know, people have been waiting so long to hear that.

And I think depending on what the details are, I'll be very interested to see the public reaction.

- Yeah, that will be coming soon.

Let's transition from the Washington Bridge to Washington DC, what President Trump is calling the Big Beautiful Bill Act, his words, right?

And there are sweeping measures to change federal taxes and spending policies.

It recently passed the House and it has a host of provisions from reducing taxes on tips to immigration funding.

And you've been monitoring what this means for Rhode Islanders.

What can you tell us?

- Well, as you say, the bill's very complex.

There's a lot in there.

But two of the programs I'm keeping a close eye on are Medicaid and SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps.

And in both cases, Republicans wanna lower spending on those, partly to offset the cost of tax cuts and extending tax reductions.

On Medicaid, they want to put in stricter rules, work requirements, things like that, which the Congressional Budget Office says would reduce enrollment in the program by millions of people nationwide over the coming years.

You know, would that have an effect in the state budget?

Would state lawmakers try to backfill that?

And then on SNAP, they wanna have states pay a share of the cost for those food benefits, which hasn't been the case before.

So that would be a potentially significant additional cost added to the state budget, which, as we've talked about before, is already tight.

So both of those I'm keeping an eye on, but I should say briefly, Michelle, you know, this could change a lot in the Senate, the bill, before it gets to the President's deck.

So I don't know what those two programs will look like at the end of all this.

- And we should know when.

- They'd like to have it done by July 4th.

That looks ambitious, but we shall find out.

- [Michelle] All right, good to see you.

Thank you, Ted.

- Good to be here.

- And that's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

And you can now listen to our entire broadcast every Monday night at 7:00 on The Public's Radio.

And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and YouTube.

You can also visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly, or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

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