COURTESY OF THE BUZZARDS BAY COALITION
BUZZARDS BAY – Students at Massachusetts Maritime Academy are working to collect data through a collaboration that aims to protect upper Buzzards Bay.
In the spring, the academy came together with The Buzzards Bay Coalition and towns of Wareham, Bourne and Plymouth through a first of its kind collaboration to reduce nitrogen pollution from wastewater in the upper Bay.
The project, which was funded by a grant from the EPA’s Southeast New England Program, is studying the feasibility of moving the Wareham wastewater treatment plant discharge pipe from the Agawam River to the open waters of Buzzards Bay by the academy.
For the next two years students will monitor the environmental conditions in the upper Bay to collect baseline data about the health of the water that flows past the school.
The students are collecting the data using a sonde which hangs from a special rope deep in the water.
Every 15 minutes the device logs data on the water’s health, including temperature, algae, salinity, oxygen and pH.
The data being collected is proving to be valuable for a broad range of research in Buzzards Bay.
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