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| Buzzards Bay | |
|---|---|
 Map of Buzzards Bay | |
  Buzzards Bay | |
| Location | Massachusetts |
| Coordinates | 41°36′N70°45′W / 41.600°N 70.750°W /41.600; -70.750 |
| Etymology | Named afterosprey 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 is abay of theAtlantic Ocean adjacent to theU.S. state ofMassachusetts.[2] It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination forfishing,boating, andtourism. Buzzards Bay is often considered the finest sailing location on the East Coast and is frequently compared in terms of sailing conditions to San Francisco Bay. Since 1914, Buzzards Bay has been connected toCape Cod Bay by theCape Cod Canal. In 1988, under theClean Water Act, theEnvironmental Protection Agency and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts designated Buzzards Bay to theNational Estuary Program, as "an estuary of national significance" that is threatened by pollution, land development, or overuse.[3]
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It is surrounded by theElizabeth Islands on the south, byCape Cod on the east, and thesouthern coasts ofBristol andPlymouth counties in Massachusetts to the northwest. To the southwest, the bay is connected toRhode Island Sound. The city ofNew Bedford, Massachusetts is a historically significant port on Buzzards Bay; thePort of New Bedford 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.
Buzzards Bay was created during the latter portion of thePleistocene epoch through the interplay of glacial and oceanic processes. Beginning fifty thousand to seventy thousand years ago, the edges of the continentalice sheet covering much ofNorth America began to fluctuate, leavingmoraines 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 extensiveoutwash 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 calledkettle 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.[4] 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 theestuarine waters to create a productive aquatic ecosystem. Like many estuaries, however, increasing development and land-use changes by the surrounding communities are accompanied bynutrient runoff leading toeutrophication (an increase in nutrient levels leading to oxygen depletion) in the smallerembayments. Decreases ineelgrass,scallops, andherring have also been noted, but direct cause-and-effect relationships are not clear. Coordinated management efforts in Buzzards Bay have helped to decreaseshellfish closures, conserve habitat forsea birds, and preserve open space.
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Buzzards Bay was first named Gosnold's Hope by CaptainBartholomew Gosnold.[5] The modern name was presumably given bycolonists who saw a large bird that they called abuzzard near its shores. The bird was actually anosprey.[6] After a downturn caused byDDT, 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.[7]
The first naval engagement of theAmerican Revolution, theBattle off Fairhaven, occurred in Buzzards Bay whenpatriots retrieved two vessels that were captured by the British sloop of warFalcon. On 14 May 1775, American Captain Daniel Egery and Capt. Nathaniel Pope ofFairhaven in the sloopSuccess (40 tons, 30 men) retrieved two vessels captured by the British crew of Captain John Linzee (Lindsey), Royal Navy commander of HMSFalcon (14 guns, 110 men). Crew memberNoah Stoddard and the others took the first naval prisoners of the war, 13 British crew; two were wounded and one died.[8][9][10][11]
The bay was the location, in 1936, of one of only five documented fatal shark attacks in the commonwealth's history.[12]
In 1987, researchers from theWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution experimented with a new growth structure allowingBlue mussels to grow above theBenthic Turbidity Zone leading to a new commercial scalemariculture technique.[13]
In 1991, towns located on Buzzards Bay suffered the worst effects from thestorm surge ofHurricane Bob.
The Buzzards Bay disaster happened on April 27, 2003.[14] Anoil spill of 98,000 gallons of oil leaked from abarge, destroying much of theshellfish business and killing manybirds.
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 the2017–18 North American cold wave, part of the bay froze over.[15]
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