What Happened at 

 West Falmouth? 



On the evening of September 15, 

 1969, a tug pulling a barge out of 

 Tiverton, Rhode Island, had started up 

 Buzzard's Bay bound for a power plant 

 on the Cape Cod Canal. During the 

 night, the radar failed and the towline 

 broke. In the fog, the barge Florida 

 went aground on submerged boulders 

 near the mouth of West Falmouth 

 Harbor. The Florida was damaged and 

 leaking her 2500 ton cargo of No. 2 

 fuel oil into the waters of West 

 Falmouth. Before the barge could be 

 lightened and freed from the rocks, 

 about 550 tons or 175,000 gallons of 

 the light refined oil were lost. 



In the water, the oil formed a coffee 

 colored emulsion of water and oil that 

 was visible for several miles. The slick 

 was driven north -northeast by strong 

 winds toward Wild Harbor. Efforts at 

 containing or otherwise mitigating the 

 impact of the spilled oil included the 

 use of booms or floating barriers, and 

 two types of chemical dispersants to 

 break up the oil. These efforts had little 

 or no effect on the movement and im- 

 pact of the spilled oil. Miles of beach 

 were littered with windrows of dying, 

 dead, and decaying marine organisms. 

 With each tide, the windrows were 

 replenished with more casualties of 

 scallops, lobsters, finfish, marine 

 worms, and various other marine 

 organisms. The oil had obviously im- 

 pacted the marshes and tidal areas of 

 Wild Harbor. 



At the time, the event attracted little 

 national attention. The spill was not 

 large and some oil spill professionals, 

 such as the president of the cleanup 

 company, predicted a full recovery in 

 four to six weeks. However, Town of 

 Falmouth Shellfish Constable George 



Souza knew that the problem was 

 more serious. Mr. Souza made a per- 

 sonal survey of the local beaches, 

 marshes and waters. He estimated the 

 immediate loss to the local shellfishing 

 industry to be $250,000. Mr. Souza's 

 estimate included only the immediate 

 mortality of scallops and soft-shell 

 clams. He did not consider the loss to 

 other commercial fisheries products 

 such as lobsters, finfish and hard-shell 

 clams (quahogs), nor the secondary 

 impacts to fish processing, transport- 

 ing, wholesaling and retailing industries 

 that would be experienced in years to 

 come. 



Principal Falmouth shellfishing areas 

 were closed for several years following 

 the spill. Shellfishing in the Wild Har- 

 bor Basin and Wild Harbor River is still 

 restricted today, ten years after the 

 spill. Because of the severe local 

 economic impact of the spill, the Town 

 of Falmouth and the State of 

 Massachusetts filed suit against the 

 owner of the Florida. In an out-of-court 

 settlement, the Town of Falmouth 

 received $100,000 and the State of 

 Massachusetts received $200,000 in 

 payment of damages. 



What About 

 Scientific Studies? 



It is relatively easy to estimate the 

 dollar impact of the West Falmouth 

 spill on local fisheries. It is a much 

 more difficult matter to document, in- 

 terpret and understand the immediate 

 and long-term impacts of the spill to 

 the ecosystems of the West Falmouth 

 area. The spill occurred only a few 

 miles from the Woods Hole Oceano- 

 graphic Institution and the Woods Hole 

 Marine Biological Laboratory which are 

 among the most respected oceano- 

 graphic research centers in the world. 

 The chance proximity of the spill site to 

 Woods Hole provided an excellent op- 

 portunity for a scientifically rigorous 

 documentation and analysis of the ef- 

 fects of a single oil spill event. This is 

 precisely what the Woods Hole re- 

 searchers, led by Dr. Howard Sanders, 

 Mr. George Hampson and Dr. Max 

 Blumer, set out to do. Through the 

 years, twelve scientific investigators 

 have examined different aspects of the 

 West Falmouth spill. Research efforts 

 have included chemical analyses, sedi- 

 ment analyses, long-term studies of 

 benthic (bottom-dwelling) organisms, 

 studies of the marsh ecosystems and 

 detailed investigations of the biology of 

 fiddler crabs and killifish of Wild Harbor 

 marsh. Taken together, these studies 

 provide a detailed account of the ef- 

 fects of the West Falmouth spill, mak- 

 ing it the most studied and best 

 understood oil spill to date. 



