96 



Buttermilk Bay, Bourne and Wareham 



Buttermilk Bay is a protected embayment at the north end of 

 Buzzards Bay, with an area of 200 ha, and aim MLW mean depth. In 

 recent years. Buttermilk Bay has become polluted from development in the 

 surrounding watershed, and the Bay is now closed to shellfishing each 

 summer. Nutrient loading in the bay is high (Valiela and Costa, in 

 press) , but effects are localized because the tidal range is 1 m, and 

 50% of the water is flushed with each tide (Costa, 1988). The Cape Cod 

 Canal (built -1910) discharges less enriched water from Cape Cod Bay 

 into Buzzards Bay, 1 km from the mouth of Buttermilk Bay. This 

 additional flushing may be keeping pollution levels in Buttermilk Bay 

 from being worse than they are. 



Buttermilk Bay is the only site in Buzzards Bay where colonization 

 of eelgrass was mapped after the wasting disease (Stevens 1935, 1936, 

 Stevens et al., 1950). Recently, Buttermilk Bay has been studied to 

 measure hydrography, nutrient loading, eelgrass abundance, and 

 groundwater movement (Valiela and Costa, in press; Fish, in prep; Moog, 

 1987) that shed light on Stevens observations. 



Stevens noted that eelgrass survived or first appeared near Red 

 Brook, and his observations were one of many that demonstrated eelgrass 

 beds near fresh water inputs were refuge populations from the disease. 

 He also noted that eelgrass first appeared in Little Buttermilk Bay 

 along its most northern shore where no streams entered. It is apparent 

 now that this area has large groundwater inputs (pers. obser., Moog, 



