Buzzards Bay

Buzzards Bay
Map of Buzzards Bay
Location	Massachusetts
Coordinates	41°34′N 70°46′W / 41.567°N 70.767°W / 41.567; -70.767Coordinates: 41°34′N 70°46′W / 41.567°N 70.767°W / 41.567; -70.767
Etymology	Named after osprey that were mistakenly called "buzzards"
Part of	Atlantic Ocean

Max. length	28 mi (45 km)^[1]
Max. width	8 mi (13 km)^[1]
Surface area	250 sq mi (650 km²)^[1]
Average depth	36 ft (11 m)^[1]

Settlements	New Bedford, Massachusetts

Buzzards Bay and surrounding area from orbit (looking southwest)

Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Since 1914, Buzzards Bay has been connected to Cape Cod Bay by the Cape Cod Canal. In 1988, under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Massachusetts designated Buzzards Bay to the National Estuary Program, as "an estuary of national significance" that is threatened by pollution, land development, or overuse.^[2]

Geography

It is surrounded by the Elizabeth Islands on the south, by Cape Cod on the east, and the southern coasts of Bristol and Plymouth counties in Massachusetts to the northwest. To the southwest, the bay is connected to Rhode Island Sound. The city of New Bedford, Massachusetts is a historically significant port on Buzzards Bay; it was the world's most successful whaling port during the early- and mid-19th century.

Geology

Buzzards Bay was created during the latter portion of the Pleistocene epoch through the interplay of glacial and oceanic processes. Beginning fifty thousand to seventy thousand years ago, the edges of the continental ice sheet covering much of North America began to fluctuate, leaving moraines to mark the former extent of the receded ice. One such moraine forms Cape Cod, which is most of the eastern shoreline of Buzzards Bay.

In addition to the moraines, the melting ice sheet produced extensive outwash plains composed of mixed sediments and ice that bordered the bay to the northwest and west. Melting ice blocks in the outwash deposits formed distinctive circular features called kettle lakes. Numerous examples of kettle lakes can be found to the northwest of the Cape Cod Canal. Finally, waters released from the melting ice sheet raised sea level by sixty to one-hundred-twenty meters (198–396 feet) and drowned preexisting outwash channels. Toward the end of the last ice age, fifteen thousand years ago until about six thousand years ago, Buzzards Bay was still dry land. (See Progression of sea-level change in Atlantic Canada.) During the past six thousand years, sea level has risen an average of one foot per century, and until about four thousand years ago, the landward boundary of Buzzards Bay extended only to about the current thirty-foot bathymetic contour, forming a coastline two-thirds of the way up the current bay, between West Falmouth and Mattapoisett.

The bay's current configuration, a well-mixed central bay and fringing shallow drowned-river valleys, with their shallow depth, tidal action, and surface waves, promotes mixing of the estuarine waters to create a productive aquatic ecosystem. Like many estuaries, however, increasing development and land-use changes by the surrounding communities are accompanied by nutrient runoff leading to eutrophication (an increase in nutrient levels leading to oxygen depletion) in the smaller embayments. Decreases in eelgrass, scallops, and herring have also been noted, but direct cause-and-effect relationships are not clear. Coordinated management efforts in Buzzards Bay have helped to decrease shellfish closures, conserve habitat for sea birds, and preserve open space.

History

Birds eye view map, 1909

The name was given to this bay by colonists who saw a large bird that they called a buzzard near its shores. The bird was actually an osprey,^[3] and, after a downturn caused by DDT, today increasing numbers of osprey breed along the shores of the bay thanks to restoration efforts led by the Buzzards Bay Coalition and longtime Westport residents Gil and Josephine Fernandez.^[4]

The first naval engagement of the American Revolution, the Battle off Fairhaven, occurred in Buzzards Bay when patriots retrieved two vessels that were captured by the British sloop of war Falcon. On 14 May 1775, American Captain Daniel Egery and Capt. Nathaniel Pope of Fairhaven in the sloop Success (40 tons, 30 men) retrieved two vessels captured by the British crew of Captain John Linzee (Lindsey), Royal Navy commander of HMS Falcon (14 guns, 110 men). Crew member Noah Stoddard and the others took the first naval prisoners of the war, 13 British crew; two were wounded and one died.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

The bay was the location of one of only three documented fatal shark attacks in the state's history in 1936.

In 1987, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution experimented with a new growth structure allowing Blue mussels to grow above the Benthic Turbidity Zone leading to a new commercial scale mariculture technique.^[9]

In 1991, towns located on Buzzards Bay suffered the worst effects from the storm surge of Hurricane Bob.

The Buzzards Bay disaster happened on April 27, 2003.^[10] An oil spill destroyed much of the shellfish business and killed many birds. 98,000 gallons of oil leaked from a barge.

Ra Ra Riot's John Pike's body was found in Buzzard's Bay. He had disappeared from a party in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in June 2007, and was found several weeks later in the bay.

Islands

References

1 2 3 4 "Buzzards Bay Quick Facts". Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
↑ "The Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Designate BUZZARDS BAY to the National Estuary Program" (PDF). Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program. 29 January 1988. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
↑ Green, Eugene; Sachse, William; McCaulley, Brian (2006). The Names of Cape Cod. Arcadia Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-933212-84-5.
↑ "Coalition for Buzzards Bay Buzz: Creature Feature – The Osprey Heralds Spring". www.southcoasttoday.com. 6 June 2008. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
↑ http://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/library/publications/old-dartmouth-historical-sketches/odhs_no_6
↑ See Captain Nathaniel Pope's manuscript and Ellis's History for accounts of this rebellion.
↑ Recapture of Falcon’s Prizes: The First Naval Encounter of the War, 14 May 1775
↑ First Naval Skirmish of the American Revolution
↑ Hampson, GR; Rhoads, DC; Clark, DW. "Benthic mariculture and research rig developed for diver operations". In: Lang, MA; Jaap, WC (ed). Diving for Science…1989. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences annual scientific diving symposium 28 September - 1 October 1989 Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
↑ Buzzards Bay Oil Spill: Bouchard Barge No. 120

External links

Waterbodies of Massachusetts
Bays, Coves, and Sounds	Assonet Bay Broad Sound Buzzards Bay Cape Cod Bay Cat Cove Dorchester Bay Duxbury Bay Fairhaven Bay Hingham Bay Juniper Cove Massachusetts Bay Nahant Bay Nantucket Sound Narragansett Bay Orleans Cove Plymouth Bay Popponesset Bay Quincy Bay Vineyard Sound Waquoit Bay Warren Cove
Canals, Channels, and Straits	Blackstone Canal Broad Brook Canal Broad Canal Canapitsit Channel Cape Cod Canal Fort Point Channel Hampshire and Hampden Canal Holyoke Canal System Hypocrite Channel Jeremiah's Gutter Lechmere Canal Lowell Power Canal System and Pawtucket Gatehouse Madaket Ditch Merrimack Canal Middlesex Canal Mother Brook North Canal Pawtucket Canal Quick's Hole Robinson's Hole Salem Channel Salem Beverly Waterway Canal South Channel South Hadley Canal Turners Falls Canal Woods Hole
Estuaries	Annisquam River Back River Bass River Boston Harbor Buzzards Bay Fore River Mitchell River Mount Hope Bay Oyster Pond River Popponesset Bay Quashnet River Weir River
Harbors	Barnstable Harbor Boston Harbor East Harbor Hyannis Harbor Marblehead Harbor Plymouth Harbor Provincetown Harbor Rock Harbor Salem Harbor
Lakes	Briggs Reservoir Buffumville Lake Charge Pond Chebacco Lake Crystal Lake Follins Pond Hickory Hills Lake Indian Lake Lake Ashmere Lake Attitash Lake Boon Lake Buel Lake Chaubunagungamaug Lake Cochichewick Lake Cochituate Lake Garfield Lake Massapoag Lake Monomonac Lake Nippenicket Lake Onota Lake Quannapowitt Lake Quinsigamond Lake Rico Lake Sabbatia Lake Saltonstall Lewis Lake Little Quittacas Pond Long Pond Mystic Lakes Pine Lake Pocksha Pond Prankers Pond Silver Lake Wallum Lake Wenham Lake Whites Pond
Ponds	Abner Pond Arnold School Pond Barrett Pond Bartlett Pond Bates Pond Beaver Dam Pond Big Rocky Pond Big Sandy Pond Billington Sea Black Jimmy Pond Bloody Pond Boot Pond Brooks Pond Browning Pond Bullough's Pond Campus Pond Cedar Pond Clay Pit Pond College Pond Cooks Pond Crossman Pond Curlew Pond Deer Pond Dug Pond Dunham Pond East Head Reservoir Elbow Pond Ezekiel Pond Fairyland Pond Fawn Pond Fearing Pond Federal Pond Five Mile Pond Forge Pond Fresh Meadow Pond Fresh Pond Fuller Street Pond Furnace Pond Gallows Pond Glen Charlie Pond Great Herring Pond Great Island Pond Great South Pond Gunners Exchange Pond Halfway Pond Hardy Pond Harrobs Corner Bog Pond Hedges Pond Hocomonco Pond Horn Pond Houghton's Pond Hoyts Pond Indian Head Pond Indian Pond Island Creek Pond Island Pond (Cedarville) Island Pond (Plymouth) Jacobs Pond Keene Pond Kings Pond Lake Lashaway Learned Pond Leonards Pond Little Herring Pond Little Long Pond (Plymouth) Little Long Pond (Wareham) Little Pond Little Rocky Pond Little Sandy Bottom Pond Little Sandy Pond Little West Pond Long Duck Pond Long Island Pond Long Pond (Plymouth) Long Pond (Rochester) Lout Pond Lower Chandler Pond Maquan Pond Mary's Pond Mashpee and Wakeby Ponds Micajah Pond Mill Pond (Duxbury) Mill Pond (Wareham) Monponsett Pond Morey Hole Muddy Pond New Long Pond North Hill Marsh Pond North Triangle Pond Oldham Pond Parker Mills Pond Pembroke Street South Pond Pine Street Pond Quaboag Pond Redd's Pond Reeds Millpond Robbins Pond Rocky Pond Round Pond Russell Millpond Russell Pond Sampsons Pond Sandy Pond Sargent's Pond Savery Pond Sawins Pond Scargo Lake Shallow Pond Ship Pond Smelt Pond Smith Pool Snipatuit Pond South Meadow Brook Reservoir South Meadow Pond South Triangle Pond Spectacle Pond Spring Pond Spy Pond Stetson Pond Studleys Pond Thompson Pond Tihonet Pond Tispaquin Pond Tremont Mill Pond Triangle Pond Tuxbury Pond Union Pond Upper Chandler Pond Vaughn Pond Walden Pond Walker Pond Wampatuck Pond Watson Pond Watuppa Ponds West Chandler Pond White Island Pond Winnecunnet Pond
Reservoirs	Aaron River Reservoir Accord Pond Assawompset Pond Big Pond Blackmore Pond Briggs Reservoir Chestnut Hill Reservoir Fisher Hill Reservoir Fort Meadow Reservoir Fresh Pond Great Quittacas Pond Great Sandy Bottom Pond Haggetts Pond High Service Water Tower and Reservoir Lake Wyola Little South Pond Littleville Lake Lost Lake Miscoe Lake Neponset Reservoir Norton Reservoir Otis Reservoir Quabbin Reservoir Round Pond Silver Lake Stockbridge Bowl Stony Brook Stump Pond Sudbury Reservoir Sugden Reservoir Tully Lake Wachusett Reservoir Weston Reservoir

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