9/13/2012 ENVIRONMENTAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE Minutes

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monitoring. On September 10, during routine monitoring, a bloom of the dinoflagellate Cochlodinium (800 cells.ml) was detected in Popponesset Bay. Diatoms and other good algae were also present. The water temperature was 74 F. The next day after a cold night, the water temperature dropped to 68 F and the water was relatively clear. The Cochlodinium must have been affected by the rapid drop in temperature because the bloom was knocked down (to 2 cells/ml), but the diatoms and other good algae were still at about the same level. No Cochlodinium was detected in Waquoit Bay and no dead fish were observed. In the last decade, blooms of Cochlodinium occurred in Buzzard's Bay and Nantucket Sound areas where it was never seen before. Fish killing blooms in Korea were reported in the 1980s. The Water Quality Monitoring Program continues as a collaboration of the Town, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (Dept. of Natural Resources) and UMass Dartmouth, SMAST. Estuary Restoration/Shellfish Proaaaation The Oyster Propagation/Eutrophication Mitigation Project continued with 1,000 bags of tiny oyster seed on pieces of shell transferred to the Mashpee River from the ARC Hatchery in Dennis. The seed and the oysters from last year's seeding are growing well. Oyster harvesting starts November 1 again this year and continues through March 31, 2013 (The area is dosed April 1, 2013). Spawns from our oysters and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's shellfish farm around Gooseberry Island resulted in significant sets of oysters in the area for the first time last year. This summer, we had a college student intern count the oysters that had set and grown in Popponesset Bay and associated estuaries (Mashpee R., Ockway Bay, Shoestring Bay, etc). He counted 11,200 oysters. This a small number compared to the hundreds of thousands of oysters that are harvested from the Town propagation program and the Tribe's farm, but if we increase our numbers by purchasing more seed, there is potential for the sets from spawns to contribute to the fishery, removal of nitrogen and control of eutrophication.