Buzzards Bay (bay)
Encyclopedia
Buzzards Bay is a bay
Headlands and bays
Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment.- Geology and geography :Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is surrounded by land on three sides, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by high,...
of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
adjacent to the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (twelve kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, boating
Boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels , focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or water skiing...
, and tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
. Since 1914, Buzzards Bay has been connected to Cape Cod Bay
Cape Cod Bay
Cape Cod Bay is a large bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Measuring below a line drawn from Brant Rock in Marshfield to Race Point in Provincetown, Massachusetts, it is enclosed by Cape Cod to the south and east, and Plymouth County, Massachusetts, to the west....
by the Cape Cod Canal
Cape Cod Canal
The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway traversing the narrow neck of land that joins Cape Cod to mainland Massachusetts.Part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the canal is roughly 17.4 miles long and connects Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south...
. In 1987, Buzzards Bay was designated an Estuary of National Significance.
Geography
It is surrounded by the Elizabeth IslandsElizabeth Islands
The Elizabeth Islands are a chain of small islands extending southwest from the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the United States. They are located at the outer edge of Buzzards Bay, north of Martha's Vineyard from which they are separated by Vineyard Sound, and constitute the town of...
on the south, by Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
on the east, and the southern coasts
South Coast (Massachusetts)
The South Coast of Massachusetts is the region of southeastern Massachusetts consisting of southern Bristol and Plymouth counties bordering Buzzards Bay, and includes the cities of Fall River, New Bedford, the southeastern tip of East Taunton and nearby towns...
of Bristol
Bristol County, Massachusetts
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 534,678 people, 205,411 households, and 140,706 families residing in the county. The population density was 962 people per square mile . There were 216,918 housing units at an average density of 390 per square mile...
and Plymouth
Plymouth County, Massachusetts
Plymouth County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of 2010, the population was 494,919. Its county seats are Plymouth and Brockton...
counties in Massachusetts to the northwest. To the southwest, the bay is connected to Rhode Island Sound
Rhode Island Sound
Rhode Island Sound is a strait of water, off the coast of the state of Rhode Island at mouth of Narragansett Bay. It forms the eastern extension of Long Island Sound and opens out the Atlantic Ocean between Block Island and Martha's Vineyard....
. The city of New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
is a historically-significant port on Buzzards Bay; it was the world's most successful whaling port during the early- and mid-nineteenth century.
Geology
Buzzards Bay was created during the latter portion of the PleistocenePleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
epoch through the interplay of glacial and oceanic processes. Beginning fifty thousand to seventy thousand years ago, the edges of the continental ice sheet
Ice sheet
An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km² , thus also known as continental glacier...
covering much of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
began to fluctuate, leaving moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
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. (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
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
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
Eutrophication
Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...
(an increase in nutrient levels leading to oxygen depletion) in the smaller embayments. Decreases in eelgrass
Zostera
Zostera is a small genus of widely distributed seagrass, commonly called marine eelgrass or simply eelgrass . The genus Zostera contains sixteen species.-Ecology:Zostera is found on sandy substrates or in estuaries submerged or partially floating...
, scallop
Scallop
A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source...
s, and herring
Herring
Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...
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
Shellfish is a culinary 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 environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
closures, conserve habitat for sea birds, and preserve open space.
History
The name was given to this bay by colonistsColonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...
who saw a large bird that they called a buzzard
Buzzard
A buzzard is one of several large birds, but there are a number of meanings as detailed below.-Old World:In the Old World Buzzard can mean:* One of several medium-sized, wide-ranging raptors with a robust body and broad wings....
near its shores. The bird was actually an osprey
Osprey
The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk or fish eagle, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and across the wings...
, and small numbers of osprey continue to breed along the shores of the bay.
In 1991, towns located on Buzzards Bay suffered the worst effects from the storm surge
Storm surge
A storm surge is an offshore rise of water associated with a low pressure weather system, typically tropical cyclones and strong extratropical cyclones. Storm surges are caused primarily by high winds pushing on the ocean's surface. The wind causes the water to pile up higher than the ordinary sea...
of Hurricane Bob
Hurricane Bob
Hurricane Bob was one of the costliest hurricanes in New England history. The second named storm and first hurricane of the 1991 Atlantic hurricane season, Bob developed from an area of low pressure near The Bahamas on August 16. The depression steadily intensified, and became Tropical Storm Bob...
.
The bay was the location of one of only three documented fatal shark attacks in the state's history. It occurred in 1936.
Islands
- Amrita IslandAmrita IslandAmrita Island is a small inhabited island in Squeteague Harbor in the village of Catumet in the town of Bourne, Massachusetts. Several residential homes are located on the island...
- Bassetts IslandBassetts IslandBassetts Island is a propeller-shaped island within Pocasset Harbor and Red Brook Harbor, in Bourne, Massachusetts, USA.The island is geographically separated into four portions, the central, northeast, southeast, and the western. The island is inhabited ; there is one house on the western portion...
- Bird IslandBird Island (Massachusetts)Bird Island is a tiny island in Buzzards Bay at the mouth of Sippican Harbor, less than a mile off the mainland coast of the town of Marion, Massachusetts .-Landmarks:The only landmarks on Bird Island are a flagpole and an historic -high lighthouse...
- Elizabeth IslandsElizabeth IslandsThe Elizabeth Islands are a chain of small islands extending southwest from the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the United States. They are located at the outer edge of Buzzards Bay, north of Martha's Vineyard from which they are separated by Vineyard Sound, and constitute the town of...
- Bachelor IslandBachelor IslandBachelor Island is a small barren rock just off the northeastern coast of Naushon Island in Massachusetts. The rock is southeast of South Shore Road on Naushon Island and southwest of Monohansett Island....
- Baret IslandBaret IslandBaret Island is a small, sandy but mostly-rocky, oval-shaped island in Buzzards Bay; it is part of the town of Gosnold, Massachusetts, USA. The island is just off the near mid-northern coast of Nashawena Island, northeast of Rock Island, southeast of a peninsula known as 'The Neck' on Nashawena...
- Cuttyhunk IslandCuttyhunkCuttyhunk Island is the outermost of the Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. It was the first site of English settlement in New England. It is located between Buzzards Bay to the north and Vineyard Sound to the south...
- Nashawena IslandNashawena IslandNashawena Island is the second largest of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA. It lies between Cuttyhunk Island to the west and Pasque Island to the east. The island has a land area of 7.076 km² and an official permanent population of 2 persons as of the 2000 census. ...
- Naushon IslandNaushon IslandNaushon Island, part of the Elizabeth Islands, is seven miles long, just off Cape Cod, and four statute miles NW of Martha's Vineyard. The island is owned by the Forbes family and is included in the town of Gosnold, Massachusetts...
- Nonamesset IslandNonamesset IslandNonamesset Island is the most easterly of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA. The island has a land area of 1.398 km² and was uninhabited as of the 2000 census. The island is part of the town of Gosnold, Massachusetts....
- Pasque IslandPasque IslandPasque Island is one of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA. It lies between Nashawena Island to the west and Naushon Island to the east. The island has a land area of 3.45 km² and had a population of 2 persons as of the 2000 census. The island is part of the town of...
- Penikese Island
- Uncatena IslandUncatena IslandUncatena Island is one of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA. It is the most northerly of the Elizabeth Islands and lies just northeast of the largest island, Naushon Island. Uncatena has a land area of 0.492 km² , and was uninhabited as of the 2000 census....
- Veckatimest IslandVeckatimest IslandVeckatimest Island is one of the Elizabeth Islands, part of the town of Gosnold in Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA. The island has a land area of 0.0675 km² and was uninhabited as of the 2000 census....
- Weepecket IslandsWeepecket IslandsThe Weepecket Islands are a group of three islands which are part of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA. They are located off the north shore of Naushon Island, the largest of the Elizabeth Islands. Together the three Weepeckets have a land area of 0.051 km²...
- Bachelor Island
- Gull Island
- Monohansett Island
- Onset Island
- West Island
- Wickets IslandWickets IslandWickets Island is a island located in Onset Harbor in Wareham, Massachusetts. It is located from shore.-History:The island is named for Jabez Wicket, the Wampanoag who is said to have lived there in the late 18th century...
See also
- List of islands of Massachusetts for a more-or-less complete listing of the islets, rocks, and ledges within the bay.