104 



watershed has a moderate density of homes with on-site sewage disposal. 

 Little eelgrass grows here because the inner Harbor has appreciable wave 

 scour, and the outer harbor to drops rapidly to 6.0 m MLW. Nonetheless 

 this site is interesting because it was the focal point of a large spill 

 of No. 2 fuel oil on 16 September 1969 (Sanders et. al., 1980). 



Because this is a high energy environment, the beds positions are 

 somewhat variable between surveys. Nonetheless, beds on each side of 

 the entrance of Silver Beach Harbor are present on most photographs, but 

 show changes in boundaries. These beds are dense and persistent on all 

 photographs including within one year of storms and ice scour. 

 Nonetheless, the beds here are noticeably less dense and cover less area 

 in April 1971 than prior to the oil spill. In 1974, eelgrass cover 

 remains somewhat depressed, but by 1975 and 1981, these beds seem to 

 have largely recovered. There is evidence that the concentration of 

 fuel oil in the sediments was high enough to account for these changes 

 (Costa, 1982). 



West Falmouth Harbor 



West Falmouth Harbor is a protected embayment with freshwater 

 stream input primarily from . The watershed surrounding this bay is 

 developed and there is evidence of water quality declines such as algal 

 blooms and shellfish bed closures. This area was also impacted by a 

 small oil spill in November 1970 (Sanders et al., 1980). 



No early documentation of eelgrass abundance was discovered. 

 Eelgrass was abundant outside West Falmouth Harbor and just within the 

 bay in 1943 (Fig. 17). Eelgrass expanded considerably during the 1950's 



