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The Center's Work
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Wednesday May 2, 2007
Media Release 5.1 PCCS Kicks off Cape Cod Bay Monitoring Season(Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA) - The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies Cape Cod Bay Monitoring Program will launch its second field season at 1 p.m., Monday, May 7, at Rock Harbor in Orleans with remarks delivered by State Representative Sarah Peake (4th Barnstable District).
The Cape Cod Monitoring Program is a follow-up to the Center's four-year study on the effects of the Boston Effluent Outfall. The monitoring program will study downstream sources of pollution and analyze their effects on the ecosystem of the bay, in addition to assessing water quality. Water quality from Duxbury to Provincetown will be monitored. Chemical tests conducted bi-monthly by specially-trained citizen-science volunteers help quantify the quality of Cape Cod Bay, which is the southernmost region of the Gulf of Maine and the largest coastal bay in the North Atlantic. Data gathered through the Monitoring Program will be analyzed and published in an annual State of the Bay Report. The purpose of the report is to inform the public and government agencies about the overall health of Cape Cod Bay, increase overall awareness, and preserve a healthy marine ecosystem. During this research season, aboard the R/V Alert, the Cape Cod Bay Monitoring Program, under the direction of Dr. Amy Costa, will also study eelgrass systems in Plymouth and Duxbury Bay, Billingsgate Shoals and Brewster Flats. Eelgrass systems act as a refuge and nursery for juvenile fish and shellfish, and are vital to the health of any marine ecosystem. Through its various bay-related programs, PCCS has been conducting marine research in Cape Cod Bay for over thirty years. ** The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies is a private, independent, non-profit dedicated to the study and conservation of marine ecosystems and marine mammals in the Gulf of Maine, through educational, scientific and public policy programs.# # # Contacts:Tanya Gabettie Communications Coordinator Office: 508-487-3622 x 103 tgabettie@coastalstudies.org
Theresa Barbo
Amy Costa
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During the Monitoring Program's research season that stretches through October, water samples from eight offshore, over 40 nearshore and inshore stations will be analyzed to determine the health of Cape Cod Bay. What appears to be a pristine body of water can be deceiving: the Bay, with a surface area of about 603 square miles, is vulnerable to a host of dynamic processes including overdevelopment, erosion, polluted runoff and waste discharge.
