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Back to reducing nitrogen pollution
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West Falmouth Harbor
Located on Buzzards Bay’s eastern shore, West Falmouth Harbor is a local treasure and a coastal ecosystem of regional importance. The 197-acre enclosed harbor provides exceptional recreational opportunities, including a town dock, public boat ramp, and over 300 boat moorings, as well as providing prime habitat for fishing and shellfishing. Ultimately, it is the harbor’s natural environment characterized by its salt marshes, tidal creeks, and eelgrass meadows—all ecologically valuable resources providing critical habitat for a variety of wildlife and marine species. Historically, eelgrass meadows filled most of the sub-tidal area providing essential habitat for species such as the bay scallop.
In an effort to spur the complete recovery of this natural resource, The Coalition for Buzzards Bay is working to advance a recovery plan for the harbor calling for the expansion of sewer service to new areas of West Falmouth in accordance with recent recommendations of the Massachusetts Estuary Project.
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However, these ecological attributes are in dramatic decline, and in danger of disappearing completely, due to nitrogen pollution. In recent years, what most people notice about West Falmouth Harbor is its murky waters and the accumulation of algae on its shores. By July, the waters are clouded and blankets of dense algae cover much of the harbor bottom eventually washing into salt marshes and smothering plant and animal communities along the banks; dissolved oxygen measurements indicate critically low levels capable of stressing marine life; and the once prolific and ecologically vital eelgrass meadows have retreated from the inner harbor.
