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To create the State of the Bay report, The Coalition for Buzzards Bay collaborates with scientists and land use planners to examine the best available current and historical information for indicators in three categories: Pollution, Watershed Health, and Living Resources. The current State of the Bay is measured against the healthiest Buzzards Bay in recorded history – the natural abundance experienced by explorer Bartholomeu Gosnold and his crew in 1602. The Bay Gosnold experienced was unspoiled by harmful human activity and rates 100 on our scale. In examining the best available information for each of the indicators in this report, we discovered gaps in available data regarding many of the indicators, particularly in areas such as toxic pollution, and watershed growth trends. Better monitoring is required to focus and measure the success of protection and restoration activities. In such cases, the best judgment of Coalition staff and our advisors led to the development of the reported scores. We are most grateful to the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program for their assistance. In addition, a number of agencies and organizations assisted by providing data and advice including the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District, the UMass School for Marine Science and Technology, and the Woods Hole Research Center. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s annual State of the Bay report served as a model for this report.
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