OVERVIEW

Our near shore coastal salt ponds and embayments are among the most productive components of our coastal oceans. Coastal salt ponds and embayments represent a fundamental commercial, recreational and aesthetic resource for coastal communities like Barnstable. These circulation- restricted embayments support extensive and diverse plant and animal communities providing the foundation for many important commercial and recreational fisheries. The aesthetic value of these systems is also significant to both year-round and seasonal residents and the tourist industry alike. Maintaining high levels of water quality and ecological health in these systems, therefore, is fundamental to the enjoyment and utilization of these valuable resources for virtually all coastal communities.

Warren's Cove looking south -Bob Gill

Within Massachusetts alone the quality of our marine environment results in nearly $2 billion in annual earnings, over $600 million of which is related to recreation and tourism and $660 million to fishing and seafood sales. While much of the economics relies on a healthy environment, the Massachusetts population in coastal communities grew at more than two times the rate as inland communities state-wide. Globally, almost 40% of the worlds population lives within 60 miles of the coast.

As a result of land-use changes associated with an increasing coastal population, our coastal waters, specifically the near shore systems of coastal salt ponds, embayments and harbors, have seen an apparent and steady decline in water quality in recent decades. This is not only a local issue, but one of global concern as development increases along the world's shorelines. Because of their obvious proximity to the coast and their frequently heavy utilization, many coastal communities like those on Cape Cod have increasingly turned their attention toward protecting these systems from further decline or attempting their restoration. Quantifying long-term trends in water quality and addressing the actual causes of decline are fundamental to developing management strategies for these systems, both for protection from further degradation, and restoration and remediation where necessary.

The progressive and steady decline in nutrient related water quality represents one of the biggest problems facing coastal communities today. The Three Bays System is no exception. Declining nutrient related ecological health of coastal environments manifests itself as large-scale shifts in animal and plant habitat quality with a resulting shift away from commercial and recreational fish and shellfish species. Additional economic impacts may also result at higher levels of nutrient related water quality degradation (eutrophication) where aesthetic and recreational values are impacted by algal blooms, odors and/or increasing wrack deposition.

Fortunately new approaches have been developed to support the conservation or restoration of coastal embayments. These approaches are based upon the linkages between embayments and their watersheds and are based upon state-of-the-art ecological analysis and modeling coupled to engineering and policy initiatives. Managing environmental health requires a quantitative understanding of the biological and physical processes which control nutrient related water quality within a specific embayment and the role of watershed inputs in the materials balance of the receiving waters.

The first step in developing this understanding for any coastal embayment system is the establishment of an embayment-wide water sampling program. The sampling program must be conducted throughout most of the year, with the emphasis on summer-time (worst case) conditions. The goal of the monitoring program is to (1) determine the relative ecological health of each of the system's sub-embayments, (2) gauge the decline or recovery of various sub-embayments over the long-term, and (3) provide the foundation (and context) for the detailed quantitative measures required for proper nutrient and resource management.

To this end, the Three Bays Water Quality Monitoring Program was initiated in 1999 as a collaborative effort between the Coastal Systems Program at the Center for Marine Science and Technology-UMass and Three Bays Preservation. The role of the monitoring program is initially focusing on the level and spatial distribution nutrient related environmental health within Three Bays System and how patterns in environmental health varied through time. In its assessment phase, the Program has sought to focus on measuring those parameters indicative of habitat quality/environmental health. All of the present effort, however, will feed directly into future restoration efforts.

The Coastal Systems Program provides technical support for a variety of monitoring programs throughout S.E. Massachusetts and has a national and international reputation in coastal research. The Coastal Systems Program has been acknowledged by the EPA, USGS, EOEA, Mass DEP, MCZM, and CCC as highly qualified to fulfill this role as well as serving as the provider of the quantitative ecological measurement and modeling required for site-specific restorations The Coastal Systems Program is currently involved in restoration efforts or protection efforts for over 10 coastal embayments.