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Buzzards Bay is a
bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...
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 Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...
, and tourism. Since 1914, Buzzards Bay has been connected to Cape Cod Bay by the
Cape Cod Canal The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway in the U.S. state of Massachusetts connecting Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south, and is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The approximately canal traverses the neck o ...
. In 1988, under the
Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...
, the
Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts designated Buzzards Bay to the
National Estuary Program In the United States, the National Estuary Program (NEP) provides grants to states where governors have identified nationally significant estuaries that are threatened by pollution, land development, or overuse. Governors have identified a total o ...
, as "an estuary of national significance" that is threatened by pollution, land development, or overuse.


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 Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...
counties in Massachusetts to the northwest. To the southwest, the bay is connected to Rhode Island Sound. The city of
New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...
is a historically significant port on Buzzards Bay; it was the world's most successful whaling port during the early- and mid-19th century, and has been the nation's most productive fishing port for the last several years.


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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
began to fluctuate, leaving
moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...
s 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. 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 bathymetric 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 An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
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,
scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related families ...
s, and
herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...
have also been noted, but direct cause-and-effect relationships are not clear. Coordinated management efforts in Buzzards Bay have helped to decrease
shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...
closures, conserve habitat for sea birds, and preserve open space.


History

Buzzards Bay was first named Gosnold's Hope by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold. The modern name was presumably given by
colonists A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...
who saw a large bird that they called a buzzard near its shores. The bird was actually an osprey. 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. 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 Captain Noah Stoddard (1755–1850) of Fairhaven, Massachusetts was an American privateer who distinguished himself during the American Revolution by leading the Raid on Lunenburg (1782). In the raid, Stoddard led four other privateer vessels and a ...
and the others took the first naval prisoners of the war, 13 British crew; two were wounded and one died. The bay was the location, in 1936, of one of only five documented fatal shark attacks in the commonwealth's history. 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 Mariculture or marine farming is a specialized branch of aquaculture (which includes freshwater aquaculture) involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other animal products, in enclosed sections of the open ocean ( offshore mari ...
technique. In 1991, towns located on Buzzards Bay suffered the worst effects from the
storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the n ...
of Hurricane Bob. The Buzzards Bay disaster happened on April 27, 2003. An oil spill of 98,000 gallons of oil leaked from a barge, destroying much of the
shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...
business and killing many birds. 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. On January 7, 2018, due to the 2017–18 North American cold wave, part of the bay froze over.


Islands

* Amrita Island * Bassetts Island * Bird Island * Elizabeth Islands ** Bachelor Island **
Baret Island Baret is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Thomas Baret (died 1396), English MP for Oxford and spicer *Richard Baret (died 1401), English politician *William Baret, English MP for Gloucester See also *Beret A beret ( or ...
** Cuttyhunk Island ** Nashawena Island ** Naushon Island **
Nonamesset Island Nonamesset Island is the most easterly of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The island has a land area of 1.398 km² (0.54 sq mi or 345.5 acres) and was uninhabited as of the United States Census, 2000, 2000 ...
** Pasque Island ** Penikese Island **
Uncatena Island Uncatena Island is one of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the most northerly of the Elizabeth Islands and lies just off the northernmost point of Naushon Island. Uncatena has a land area of 0.492 km² ...
** Veckatimest Island **
Weepecket Islands The Weepecket Islands are a group of three islands which are part of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. They are located off the north shore of Naushon Island, the largest of the Elizabeth Islands. Together the t ...
* Gull Island * Monohansett Island * Onset Island * West Island * Wickets Island


See also

*
List of islands of Massachusetts The islands of Massachusetts range from barren, almost completely submerged rocks in Massachusetts Bay (e.g. Abbott Rock, first on the list below) to the large, famous and heavily visited Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The recent history of ...
for a more-or-less complete listing of the islets, rocks, and ledges within the bay.


References


Further reading

*
High-resolution Geophysical Data from the Inner Continental Shelf: Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts
United States Geological Survey


External links


The Buzzards Bay watershed

The Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program

1906 Bird's Eye View of Buzzards Bay

Buzzards Bay Coalition


{{Authority control Estuaries of Massachusetts Estuaries of Barnstable County, Massachusetts Bays of Massachusetts Massachusetts natural resources Intracoastal Waterway Bodies of water of Barnstable County, Massachusetts Bodies of water of Bristol County, Massachusetts Bodies of water of Dukes County, Massachusetts Bays of Plymouth County, Massachusetts