Oyster population counts in West Falmouth Harbor during the spring of 2016.

Through the U.S. EPA’s SNEP program, the Buzzards Bay NEP awarded a grant to the Town of Falmouth to evaluate water quality benefits of oyster aquaculture (the project was titled “West Falmouth Harbor Oyster Reef Development Project”; see our award announcement). The grant paid for this video, and helped fund a study of the effectiveness of using oyster aquaculture to help mitigate nitrogen pollution.  The project was sited in West Falmouth Harbor, which is the subject of a watershed nitrogen TMDL issued by EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The video highlights the town’s oyster aquaculture program and describes the benefits of oysters to water quality, and was part of the project’s outreach campaign.  You can also read the project’s final report (WF-Oyster-Bed-Final-Report-4-24-17) that includes estimates of nitrogen removal through the harvest of shellfish. The Town of Falmouth considered the pilot project a success and expanded oyster aquaculture efforts in West Falmouth Harbor during 2016. Oyster rafts are visible in the Snug Harbor area of West Falmouth Harbor in the Google Maps 2016 imagery available at this link: https://goo.gl/maps/QCAH5Xu2eVA2.

In 2015, 1500 bags of oyster remote set was delivered by Town of Falmouth staff to the staging area at Snug Harbor in West Falmouth Harbor.