The Buzzards Bay Water Quality Monitoring Program was initiated in 1992 to document and evaluate nitrogen-related water quality and long-term ecological trends in Buzzards Bay.

Until the inception of the program, no comprehensive database existed on nutrient concentration and the extent to eutrophication in the most sensitive areas of the Bay ecosystem.

“Baywatchers” was established by the Coalition, the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program and scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). After four start-up years in the Biology Department at WHOI, science support and laboratory analysis for the program was moved to the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) under the direction of Dr. Brian L. Howes, where it operated for the next 11 years. During this time, the program grew to become the largest volunteer-based coastal monitoring effort in New England and one of the most respected programs in the nation.

It is also Massachusetts’ largest volunteer-based monitoring effort and the primary source of long-term data used to assess the health of each of the Bay’s 30 major harbors and coves from the Westport Rivers around to Quissett Harbor in Falmouth and the Elizabeth Islands.

Today, the Baywatchers Program is starting a new chapter through a partnership with the Ecosystem Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (Ecosystems Center, MBL) in Woods Hole, MA under the direction of Dr. Hugh Ducklow, Senior Scientist and Director of the Ecosystems Center, MBL. The Ecosystems Center has taken on all science support and laboratory analysis for the Baywatchers Program and will build upon the solid science foundation laid by SMAST.

The Ecosystems Center, MBL will use comparable field sampling approaches, analytical methods and quality control parameters as employed at SMAST. These procedures are commonly used by the Ecosystems Center, MBL in the measurement of water quality in a variety of programs, such as the Plum Island Ecosystem Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, Palmer Station Ecosystem LTER, Arctic LTER, ongoing ecosystem monitoring in Boston Harbor, ongoing NOAA-NERRS ecosystem research in Waquoit Bay, and many other federally-supported programs.

As the Baywatchers Program has sought always to grow and provide the highest-quality information about Buzzards Bay, the coordination and management of the program by the Coalition has remain unchanged since 1992. Since 1996, Tony Williams, Director of Monitoring Programs at CBB, has served as principle project coordinator.

And with the help of our more than 100 dedicated Baywatcher volunteers, we are providing the information needed to make informed, scientifically-based decisions about the restoration and protection of Buzzards Bay.