130 



BIOLOGICAL REPORT 31 



settlement. In contrast, the marine systems of the 

 bay have experienced much less alteration. The Buz- 

 zards Bay estuary sailed by Gosnold in 1 602, by 

 the Wareham-built whaling ship Pocahontas leav- 

 ing on her maiden voyage in 1821. and by the 

 Woods Hole research vessel Asterias plying the 

 w aters in the 1 930*s has presented virtually the same 

 face through centuries, with all these ships travers- 

 ing similar habitats and aquatic ecosystems. But by 

 the time the R/V Asterias was decommissioned in 

 the late 1980's, several significant oil spills had 

 occurred, PCB and heavy metal contamination was 

 apparent in the New Bedford region, and more 

 importantly, subtle changes were being observed in 

 the ecology of some of the sensitive shallow 

 embayments of the bay. 



It is now clear that significant threats to the pro- 

 ductivity and diversity of the bay's animal and plant 

 communities exist, stemming primarily from in- 

 creased nutrient loading to bay waters. Nutrient in- 

 puts in excess of the assimilative capacity of the 

 system are locally altering habitat quality and re- 

 sulting in restructuring of system ecology. But nutri- 

 ents, unlike toxics, are natural parts of the biotic 

 systems and therefore need to have their inputs 

 managed, not stopped. Major removal of existing 

 nutrient pools is not necessary. While managing the 

 current and future nutrient loads to levels tolerable 

 to the nearshore systems of Buzzards Bay will be 

 difficult, the initial steps have been made, and the 

 ecological and economic benefits are becoming 

 apparent. Given the resilience of the marine eco- 

 systems of Blizzards Bay and the ongoing manage- 

 ment of development-related impacts, we can hope 

 that before the recently commissioned R/V Asterias 

 (II) is retired, it will be used to quantify the recov- 

 ery of currently impacted marginal systems and con- 

 tinue to document the relatively pristine nature of 

 Buzzards Bay proper. 



Acknowledgments 



First and foremost we thank Rebecca J. Howard 

 of the National Biological Service for her help, ex- 

 treme patience, and encouragement during the 

 preparation of this manuscript. Clearly without her 



efforts and faith this monograph would never have 

 been produced. We also thank our friends and col- 

 leagues who provided library research, data, and 

 insights and allowed the reproduction of various 

 tables and figures. Much of the infomiation on Buz- 

 zards Bay is spread throughout the technical and 

 regulatory literature and is therefore not readily avail- 

 able. The Buzzards Bay Project (BBP) and its di- 

 rector J. Costa were especially helpful in providing 

 BBP technical information and reports; 

 M. Rasmussen and the Coalition for Buzzards Bay 

 were also very helpful. At the Massachusetts state 

 and local level, L. Gil of the Division of Water Pol- 

 lution Control and G. Heufelder of Barnstable 

 County Health have been studying aspects of the 

 water quality of Buzzards Bay for many years. They 

 provided access to data and reports that we other- 

 wise may have missed, and S. Cadrin of the Divi- 

 sion of Marine Fisheries waded through reams of 

 fisheries data to answer our questions. The Massa- 

 chusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species 

 Program was very helpful with our search for infor- 

 mation on endangered species, and our thanks go 

 to B. Blodgett and H. Heusmann from the Massa- 

 chusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife for their 

 time and information. We are indebted to B. Kolb 

 of Camp. Dresser, and McK.ee, Inc., with whom 

 we worked on the New Bedford Outfall ecological 

 studies and who provided much of the best data on 

 outfall and pollutant sources and distributions, and 

 to the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust, which pro- 

 vided private support for some of the original data 

 gathering in our ecological research on aspects of 

 nutrient pollution around Buzzards Bay. We also 

 owe a debt of gratitude to D. Ross and the Woods 

 Hole Oceanographic Institute Sea Grant Program, 

 which has supported many of our coastal research 

 projects, helping us to gain a better understanding 

 of the response of these systems to anthropogenic 

 impacts. 



We thank the many scientists, students, and 

 scholars in the Woods Hole community who have 

 expended so much time on research into the ecol- 

 ogy of the Buzzards Bay ecosystem. Noteworthy 

 in this regard are J. Teal, C. Taylor, and G Hampson 

 of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with 



