MASHPEE – The Town of Mashpee and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe are one step closer to bringing back the self-sustaining shellfish population that the Popponesset Bay watershed used to enjoy.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it awarded the tribe a grant of over $198,000 to build a four-acre oyster reef in the bay.
“It will work in conjunction with the biomass that we’ve set up on the Popponesset Bay restoration project to enhance the bay’s number of shellfish to allow our shellfisherman and the local town shellfishermen to go back to the bay and be able to make a living,” said tribe Natural Resources Department assistant director George (Chuckie) Green.
The grant is part of the EPA’s Southeast New England Program for Coastal Watershed Restoration, which maintains coastal watersheds in Rhode Island and Southeast Massachusetts.
The reef, will not only protect marsh banks and shoreline in the bay during storm surges, but could create a self-sustaining habitat for filter feeders, fish and other wildlife.
The funds will provide the town and tribe a year to learn how to grow an oyster reef.
“It’s about fixing the bay,” said Green. “Bringing the bay back to where it was before the Cape got so loaded with people. To bring the bay back to where it could actually can produce shellfish on its own.”
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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