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National Estuary Program (NEP)

State of the Bay Report for Buzzards Bay

In 2003, The Coalition for Buzzards Bay released its first-ever State of the Bay report documenting the state of pollution, watershed health and living resources in the Bay. The result of that analysis revealed a Bay functioning at roughly half of its ecological capacity – a score of 48 out of 100. At that time, more than ½ of the bay’s harbors and coves were found to be degraded by excessive nitrogen pollution, and accelerating sprawl development was consuming the watershed’s forests and wetlands – the bay’s natural filters – at an unprecedented rate.

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