LETTER: Thanks to Town Staff for a Job Well Done

October 11, 2013

DEAR EDITOR,

As the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin Unusual Mortality Event (UME) Investigation continues, close to 700 strandings have been collected so far. The tentative cause of the UME is being attributed to cetacean morbillivirus, based upon preliminary diagnostic testing and discussion with disease experts. Of 93 dolphins tested to date, 84 were confirmed positive or suspect positive for morbillivirus.

These studies involve several NOAA laboratories and science centers, stranding network members, non-profit research organizations, and academic partners, yet it is important to note that the important data needed would not have been collected without local boots-on-the-ground members of coastal communities like ours. Here is the rest of the story:

We are lucky enough to have a Town Manager and Public Works staff that has been very effective in the handling of dolphin strandings here in Cape Charles. There have been several strandings in and around our harbor, with two dolphins actually landing on our beaches. In both cases, Town Manager Heather Arcos instructed Pete Leontieff of our public works staff to secure the dolphins as best as possible (there’s no handout or standard operating procedure for this) and then contact the Virginia Aquarium. After the technicians were able to conduct the testing and gather the data, Pete and his crew disposed of the dolphins according the specifications supplied by the Aquarium staff.

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As the wave of discontent continues to wash over our town, over everything from the Old School, PSA pipes, and folks with vacation rentals actually having to comply with the law, we tend to lose sight of the really important work going on in Cape Charles every day. Even in a town of our size, when you stop to think about the range of services Ms. Arcos and her staff are responsible for delivering, including parks and recreation services, police and fire departments, housing services, transportation and public works (streets, sewers, debris removal, signage, and so forth), you begin to have a bit more appreciation for what they do. Regardless of community size or the nature of the event (flood, hurricane, dolphin stranding, etc.), local government leaders are responsible for overseeing all four phases of emergency management — preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.

Emergencies and disasters take many forms; ultimately, it is our local Town staff that is responsible for the response. Less immediate, yet equally detrimental to our rural (coastal) quality of life, are nontraditional disasters in the form of rapid economic decline (e.g., loss of farming, construction, fishing or other jobs), as well as environmental change (e.g., drought, crop disturbance, pollution event). The quality of our Town staff (as well as how much community support they receive) will determine the effectiveness of the response to nontraditional disasters, and will ultimately shape our local capacity for rural development.

Reasonable people can disagree over any number of political issues (and this is a good thing), yet it was finding a dead baby dolphin while boating in the Bay, and the subsequent other strandings in Cape Charles, that reminded me of all the really important things I tend to take for granted. Pete didn’t have to go to those lengths to secure and protect the stranded dolphin (believe me, in many places, they just scoop them up with a backhoe and dump them in the landfill) until the marine technicians could gather the samples and data they need to combat the disease that is killing these animals, but he did.

The writhing and hand wringing over Route 13 development, hotel and Rite-Aid phantasms, rental regulations, and wastewater woebegone tribulations is bound to continue for some time. The important work of moving us forward will not wait for this. Most of us will probably never even notice — cleaning up and running wastewater plants, securing washed up dolphins, or clearing the beachfront will never be sexy. So be it. George Carlin summed it up best: “Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.”

Thanks Heather and Pete for a job well done.

WAYNE CREED
Cape Charles

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